autism as a constant conversation with the surrounding world

[Laura Weldon]

Media overage of autism is beginning to transform, due to the efforts of people with autism themselves. The narrow definition of what it means to be normal forces so many people to suppress the wild poet, the radical theorist or the creative hermit in themselves. Imagine what greater depths our culture could attain if we broadened the boundaries. People with autism who let the world know that they don't want to be "normal" and why, can do a lot to expand those boundaries. Let's hope coming generations do a better job of celebrating our differences.

Check out the following article and video.
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-03/ff_autism?curren...

[Urmila Anna Samson]

I don't know much about autism, but I do know a lot of people for whom the strain of
appearing "normal" has actually sent them close to or over the edge. The rest of us who are strong enough to withstand the strain have lost so much of ourselves that what's left is not really worth having conformed for! I struggle with my children every time we go out and face the world: To appear 'normal' or be oneself.

[Laura Weldon]

There's a lot of pressure in any society to be normal, average, typical. I suppose it's always been that way. But that doesn't encompass the range of real human experience. Maybe the kind of suffering that people endure in order to be "themselves" is the proving ground for what later emerges from them----wisdom, clarity, creativity, strength of spirit. I can't think of anyone I know who is truly an individual who didn't suffer as a child over his or her perceived differences. Or who didn't suffer from the extraordinary effort to cover up those differences. One of the great freedoms in homeschooling is the way that our children are somewhat insulated from the crushing influence of peer culture in school. They don't seem to realize until they are older that it isn't quite normal to burst into song or to spend all day in one's jammies building models out of toothpicks.