Buddy’s old backpack had been falling apart, so I’d decided to take advantage of the back to school specials to get him a new one. I took him to the backpack aisle and pointed out several backpacks from shows he liked. As soon as he saw the purple and blue backpack with Elsa from Frozen on it, his heart was set. Buddy adores Elsa.
Last night I had a rather detailed dream that a school had opened up across the street from us and Buddy was to start kinder there. The school was a beautiful log cabin structure with huge windows and an intricately crafted library, not the blue carpeted, florescent light warehouses they tend to be. I remember I was nervous to observe the kinder classroom and see if it would be the interactive, child friendly place I hoped it would be. I really wanted him to go to that school! Heck, I wanted to go to that school!
I saw this on GeekDad about Intersectionality in Special Education and it left me feeling frustrated. Karen Walsh talks about how gifted children (and she prefers the term “sparky”) are discriminated against in school and how to fix it. While I agree with her description of the challenges sparky children face, I strongly disagree with the accusation that parents of children with special needs are hoarding resources for their children and leaving sparky children out to dry. The problem isn’t resources. The problem is a school system that caters to one educational type and punishes any child who does not fit that type!
I’ve been going to a Unitarian church for a few months now. When I decided I was going to homeschool Buddy I wanted him in a place where he would be around other children that was tolerant (of his special needs, of having an atheist mother, and of my children being multi-racial) and non-dogmatic. My husband had been taking them to mass, but his church really treats families horribly and there’s no sort of Sunday school. Also, even though I’ve never been Catholic, dealing with the Catholic church through my husband has been traumatizing enough that I fully understand why people call themselves Recovering Catholics and I don’t want to put my kids through that.
I was never raised to believe in a deity or pray. And while I have been in several tight situations, I never saw the need for prayer and got through just fine. When I’m in an emergency situation pretty much all of my concentration and focus goes into what I need to do to stay safe. Take the time a bunch of tornadoes ran through Fort Worth in 2000.
Recently, an acquaintance told me she heard something about how taking Buddy to a chiropractor could cure him of autism. I told her I was rather skeptical of such things, and that I’m not looking for a cure. Amazingly it was the first time I was confronted with unsolicited cure talk, but I know other parents get it. And I can see why it gets old fast. In short, I’m not looking for a cure or a miracle. My goal is to accept my son. My hope is that others will accept him.
My kids will likely never buy a CD or DVD.
And what is stunning to think about? It’s not like it was for me growing up, when CD players replaced tape recorders and record players. I was a brand new adult when DVD players started to replace VCRs. Growing up, I realized my kids wouldn’t have CDs and VCRs, but I figured what they would have would be similar. A device to play things on, albums/movies to buy. What I never envisioned was streaming, where you could get the content you want from a website for a subscription fee, and not have to worry about buying tapes or CDs or DVDs or whatever, and how this would transform how we consume media.
Yesterday I was at the park with my kids. It’s a large park, with three playgrounds, a splash pad, a creek, and a disc golf course that contains nice walking trails through the woods. There’s a walking path that connects our neighborhood to the park. And it was perfect until off road vehicles started illegally coming into the park and destroying it. Yesterday, as I sat by the banks of the creek with my kids, not twenty-five feet away from the playground, two four wheelers came tearing through the park, circled us, and then road off to the disc golf area. I was beyond incensed. I’ve seen them plenty of times in the disc golf area, but never in the area with the playgrounds. I thought I would be safe with my kids in the playgrounds, but looks like in this day and age you can’t even take your kids to a playground of all places anymore without worrying about them getting run over!
One thing I find interesting is the question of whether or not there is a genetic predisposition to atheism or religiosity. I was raised by atheists, and when I was younger I used to worry that I didn’t come about my atheism honestly, through free inquiry from questioning a religious upbringing. Never mind the fact that growing up in the Bible Belt gave me plenty of exposure to Christianity and opportunities to debate it. And as I’ve gotten older this has been less important to me. But I do find the interaction of genes and environment interesting to consider.
I saw this post on The Friendly Atheist that explored the link between autism and atheism. In short, there does seem to be some sort of connection, but it’s complicated. This researcher was exploring the question of whether a persons with autism’s impaired ability to understand the Theory of Mind played a role in atheism and didn’t find a connection.
One of the things I liked about the interview was the focus on the fact that there’s not one way to be autistic and there’s also not one way to be atheist, and that people have different reasons for their atheism. I also liked that it blew the ToM hypothesis out of the water, because I found it a bit insulting.
froianna 