I have, for years, found it outrageous that the System, or Local Government infrastructure or whatever it is supposed to be does not acknowledge or provide support for children with Autism without dragging it’s heels in the worst possible way. Years drag on; transitional educational stages are missed and, by extension, social milestones too; parents who have tried to go to work or who have trained with that aim in mind find that they are stymied, socially, economically and psychologically by this enormous barrier between our kids and countless opportunities.
The saying that “it takes a village to raise a child” is long outmoded by circumstances ushered in by technology, meaning that one can, indeed, ‘connect’ with people worldwide using the internet.
But real connections – interpersonal, face-to-face, with kinetic cues and clues, are lost because we segregate these children off, saying that we are providing “special” education or additional support.
In my experience, we are fobbed off by a ‘worthy’ rhetoric that sits on top of sub-standard education academically, socially and economically. Rather than train these kids to ‘cope’ in the existing world, we don’t train people to address these kids appropriately, to look under the bonnet and stop taking cries of distress as personal onslaughts as we try to foist our narcissism on to education, employment and social interaction so that everyone is able to cry ‘victim’ whether they have been wronged or not, and to demonise something we don’t look beneath the surface of to get to know.
Or to praise it. As long as the words hold up a worthy scaffolding, and people behind the scenes silence those who see through the smoke-and-mirrors haze to what is actually going on.
I have gone from “why me?” to try me through a set of completely unexpected circumstances which, operating alongside others similarly stumbled upon, have changed the way that I see everything.
Fascinating Purgatory - A Guided Tour 