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Has anyone seen the news article on the BBC London news website about school refusal and autism which had come up a few hours ago? I refer to this article published on Sunday:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68575779
I thought that I would write on here about how I think of it. As I happen to be someone diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome a couple of years after reading school (following on from a family member's autism diagnosis), as well as someone who hated school and was a school refuser in the early 1990s, I was very intrigued to read the BBC News article which has arrived online about the two "mediums" and part of me wonders why no one has not put two and two together and wrote about it before, unless I had missed reading it myself. I was interested in the points made and I do agree that there are links between school refusal and autism. Not only does autism and school refusal exist in my family, but Hackney also has a family connection as well. First of all, I do notice that for many years the media seem to think that autism is a London-only thing, and even TV documentaries about the subject seemed to be only shown in the capital and the south east during the 1990s and 2000s according to regional BBC and ITV variations. Secondly, in recent times I often disagree with a lot of BBC news articles as they seem to tip the scales towards the feminist end of society, but this seemed to be a bit different. Yes, I believe that there is a link between school refusal and autism, especially Asperger Syndrome, and I am almost certain that many school refusers would most likely to have it, albeit not diagnosed.
Pupils who were absent from school often have autism, the article says - I am not disputing that as I believe that there is a lot of truth in the matter. Perhaps we were absent because we were too embarrassed or even ashamed to show our faces in public because we were different, and stood out too much from the crowd? Even know, I have a Greta Garbo recluse approach to socially appearing in public, and it is not because if being teetotal that I never frequent any local pubs. Mr Bean was the 1990s shorthand for someone who was different to their peer group, but at least I was such as huge fan of Bean as a comedy character, hence the fact that I enjoyed it when he appeared on television. As I have mentioned before, the bad experience I had not only at school but sometimes travelling to and from the establishment has left me 30 years on - in fact, exactly three decades on as of last week - with a permanent nasty taste in my mouth. I know that schools have just as much power dealing with situations involving pupils to and from school as much as they can on school soil, and that gives extended protection as to what had happened; they cannot say that they cannot do anything about the situation because it didn't happen at school itself. That was back in the early to mid 1990s, and I hope that things haven't changed since then.
As early as 1990 I had a session with the Educational Psychologist; the same gentleman who just a few weeks before was loitering with his black leather briefcase and same colour policeman's notebook at the back of a Humanities lesson, observing and taking notes with his, as I found out later, stereotypical bad handwriting, but not quite looking as if he was up to no good as no one battered an eyelid and even the teacher at the front had pretended not to acknowledge him either. After my session with him which was on a Wednesday afternoon (and I had opted out of Swimming at the local leisure centre to attend), he suggested me joining a Drama workshop on Saturday mornings which I attended and enjoyed for three years during term time. At least something positive came out of that; the Drama workshop was a nice environment; two others from my school attended and even the daughter of one of the teachers was on roll. We called the tutors by their first names and not by Sir or Miss, and it was, in a nutshell, an agreeable part of term time weekends - educational in a positive way. It was one thing that I had liked about Nottinghamshire County Council, and also why I wanted to move to the Gedling Borough Council area as a result - something which I eventually did just over 20 years later, and not to allow the now bankrupt Nottingham City Council to become a Unitary Authority in 1998, which was probably the reason why the council went bankrupt in the first place - two-tier councils are better because the services can be shared between them both. Two heads are better than one.
Four years later and it was the Education Welfare Officer's turn to force a square peg into a round hole. The EWOs, three different ones over a period of four years, became involved as early as 1990, but by 1994, the one that I had to deal with made previous incidents look as if they had never existed in the first place. I believe that people like myself refused school because its alien existence, even if we had been there for five years. I admit to being a school refuser, but deny being a truant; being a victim of assault is a damn good defence for not wanting to go to school, and breaking a bedroom window was another good defence to let my parents know that I didn't want to go as well. On a weekday morning I would have preferred to watch The Time The Place on the black and white portable in my bedroom rather than wish that suits of armour were part of the school uniform - shall we say that the main difference was that boxers actually wore boxing gloves? Education Welfare Officers had never been my favourite people to come knocking on my front door, and I had put them in the same boat as TV Licensing inspectors or bailiffs (nothing from either of them, thankfully), Jehovah's Witnesses (who called at my home a few weeks ago, but I didn't answer) and burglars (it happened to me in 2008). In hindsight, mainstream education felt like a punishment in itself, and I don't mean actual punishments like detention and suspension. Even Coronation Street in 2006 had dealt with the subject of school refusal when David Platt refused to attend classes and would rather play with his X-Box all day. Perhaps if we played our cards right, then perhaps they might do an autism storyline in the not too distant future? Education should be about rewarding achievements in life, just as if one was wearing the black gown and mortarboard at a university graduation ceremony.
I believe that it is indeed a truism that school refusers have Asperger Syndrome - I know that based on personal experience. It shouldn't be like this however: living on one's own with no family, because: A) One's own social skills have been eroded and almost destroyed due to past events and experiences in life; and: B) Not being able to cement relationships together, leading to no marriage or children, leaving that person in a "need and not have" situation - wanting the rights in the Human Rights Act 1998 isn't elitism; it is a Human Right. It was a pity that this article wasn't published in the early 1990s as it would have helped me while I was still in the system.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68575779
I thought that I would write on here about how I think of it. As I happen to be someone diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome a couple of years after reading school (following on from a family member's autism diagnosis), as well as someone who hated school and was a school refuser in the early 1990s, I was very intrigued to read the BBC News article which has arrived online about the two "mediums" and part of me wonders why no one has not put two and two together and wrote about it before, unless I had missed reading it myself. I was interested in the points made and I do agree that there are links between school refusal and autism. Not only does autism and school refusal exist in my family, but Hackney also has a family connection as well. First of all, I do notice that for many years the media seem to think that autism is a London-only thing, and even TV documentaries about the subject seemed to be only shown in the capital and the south east during the 1990s and 2000s according to regional BBC and ITV variations. Secondly, in recent times I often disagree with a lot of BBC news articles as they seem to tip the scales towards the feminist end of society, but this seemed to be a bit different. Yes, I believe that there is a link between school refusal and autism, especially Asperger Syndrome, and I am almost certain that many school refusers would most likely to have it, albeit not diagnosed.
Pupils who were absent from school often have autism, the article says - I am not disputing that as I believe that there is a lot of truth in the matter. Perhaps we were absent because we were too embarrassed or even ashamed to show our faces in public because we were different, and stood out too much from the crowd? Even know, I have a Greta Garbo recluse approach to socially appearing in public, and it is not because if being teetotal that I never frequent any local pubs. Mr Bean was the 1990s shorthand for someone who was different to their peer group, but at least I was such as huge fan of Bean as a comedy character, hence the fact that I enjoyed it when he appeared on television. As I have mentioned before, the bad experience I had not only at school but sometimes travelling to and from the establishment has left me 30 years on - in fact, exactly three decades on as of last week - with a permanent nasty taste in my mouth. I know that schools have just as much power dealing with situations involving pupils to and from school as much as they can on school soil, and that gives extended protection as to what had happened; they cannot say that they cannot do anything about the situation because it didn't happen at school itself. That was back in the early to mid 1990s, and I hope that things haven't changed since then.
As early as 1990 I had a session with the Educational Psychologist; the same gentleman who just a few weeks before was loitering with his black leather briefcase and same colour policeman's notebook at the back of a Humanities lesson, observing and taking notes with his, as I found out later, stereotypical bad handwriting, but not quite looking as if he was up to no good as no one battered an eyelid and even the teacher at the front had pretended not to acknowledge him either. After my session with him which was on a Wednesday afternoon (and I had opted out of Swimming at the local leisure centre to attend), he suggested me joining a Drama workshop on Saturday mornings which I attended and enjoyed for three years during term time. At least something positive came out of that; the Drama workshop was a nice environment; two others from my school attended and even the daughter of one of the teachers was on roll. We called the tutors by their first names and not by Sir or Miss, and it was, in a nutshell, an agreeable part of term time weekends - educational in a positive way. It was one thing that I had liked about Nottinghamshire County Council, and also why I wanted to move to the Gedling Borough Council area as a result - something which I eventually did just over 20 years later, and not to allow the now bankrupt Nottingham City Council to become a Unitary Authority in 1998, which was probably the reason why the council went bankrupt in the first place - two-tier councils are better because the services can be shared between them both. Two heads are better than one.
Four years later and it was the Education Welfare Officer's turn to force a square peg into a round hole. The EWOs, three different ones over a period of four years, became involved as early as 1990, but by 1994, the one that I had to deal with made previous incidents look as if they had never existed in the first place. I believe that people like myself refused school because its alien existence, even if we had been there for five years. I admit to being a school refuser, but deny being a truant; being a victim of assault is a damn good defence for not wanting to go to school, and breaking a bedroom window was another good defence to let my parents know that I didn't want to go as well. On a weekday morning I would have preferred to watch The Time The Place on the black and white portable in my bedroom rather than wish that suits of armour were part of the school uniform - shall we say that the main difference was that boxers actually wore boxing gloves? Education Welfare Officers had never been my favourite people to come knocking on my front door, and I had put them in the same boat as TV Licensing inspectors or bailiffs (nothing from either of them, thankfully), Jehovah's Witnesses (who called at my home a few weeks ago, but I didn't answer) and burglars (it happened to me in 2008). In hindsight, mainstream education felt like a punishment in itself, and I don't mean actual punishments like detention and suspension. Even Coronation Street in 2006 had dealt with the subject of school refusal when David Platt refused to attend classes and would rather play with his X-Box all day. Perhaps if we played our cards right, then perhaps they might do an autism storyline in the not too distant future? Education should be about rewarding achievements in life, just as if one was wearing the black gown and mortarboard at a university graduation ceremony.
I believe that it is indeed a truism that school refusers have Asperger Syndrome - I know that based on personal experience. It shouldn't be like this however: living on one's own with no family, because: A) One's own social skills have been eroded and almost destroyed due to past events and experiences in life; and: B) Not being able to cement relationships together, leading to no marriage or children, leaving that person in a "need and not have" situation - wanting the rights in the Human Rights Act 1998 isn't elitism; it is a Human Right. It was a pity that this article wasn't published in the early 1990s as it would have helped me while I was still in the system.
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