Experiences with the education system

Post Reply New Topic

Hello there community,

I'm in search of your experiences of being within the education system (mainstream, preferrably), whether good or bad, and whether you thought they catered for people on the spectrum sufficiently.
Of course this thread will run its course but I'm looking for some short responses to go anonymously into my next newsletter edition about the autistic spectrum, which will be in 6 days time.
I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who had very bad, and very good experiences, and people who thought that support made a difference or would have made a difference if it was available or indeed, adequate. Do state in your post if you don't want your text to be published. If there's a good number of poll results, that will also be published.

My experience was generally positive, because I had a special education plan in which I was allowed to study the material on my own without the interference of the teachers or students.

Negative. For me, no support due to age. It would have been nice to have gifted education, also nice to have a smaller classroom with actual peers. Age mates do not necessarily make peers.

For my 10 year old, negative. Although supports are theoretically available they haven't been sufficient to her so far. Her sensory needs aren't met. She is not being taught in a method that suits her learning style. Actual peers are mostly unavailable.

It was negative in many, many ways. I am not eager to tell more but I strongly believe that if I was home schooled or something I would be doing much better now. I did very well academically despite the fact that every single day was a pure torture - and I was not bullied, it was due to social anxieties - and I am surprised that I made through it at all. But I left school with emotional damage which might be, I am afraid, just too severe. Anyhow the environment I was brought up in wasn't aware of Aspergers as such at all, as far as I know (it was not diagnosed, I've got it two years ago) (nor people were supportive for those who clearly were different, generally they were/are ignored). I cried with joy the day I left school. And then I went to college.. Which clearly I wasn't prepared for b/c of my crippling school experience.

I am happy it seems to get better, at least for someone, somewhere in the world. These programs are very important for youg people.

Negative. Due to very slow teaching styles and bullying my school experience was a bad one and I finished school with on two GCSE's at grades at D (english) and E (math). I lost heart I think and stopped working as the schools did nothing to help.

3 years later I returned to college and retook both of those two along with several others and got Straight A grades (other than a B for math). Did an A level equivalent course after that and then went on to University where I was also getting A grades.

So yes, I would say the school education system failed me...badly!

My lecturer at college wanted to know how in the hell I ever failed my GCSE's...

Well the education system took a very bright child and screwed it up basically.

There are some kids who simply don't do well in the mainstream classrooms. I don't mean just those with disabilities such as autism. Very introverted or gifted kids, or kids who learn in nontraditional ways also don't do as well as they could. It would be wonderful if there was some provision for nontraditional kids. Here it could be a charter school. Likely the more mainstream kids wouldn't choose to come to such a school.

I had some HORRIBLE experiences in the school system. I wasn't diagnosed as having AS but I was diagnosed as having dyslexia & ADHD since I started school. I struggled in most of my classes & I was accused of not trying a lot even thou I was doing the best that I could but the learning format was WRONG for me. I had some other disabilities in addition to that stuff & I was bullied aLOT & I got in trouble a lot for being a bully. I could NEVER understand why the teachers & principles thought a skinny weak kid would attack a group of tough kids

I had both positive and negative experiences, but overall in the standard school system I'd say negative (with exceptions for great teachers).

I was told far too often "you can't possibly do that". I "couldn't" read in first grade because of lack of ability to pronounce the words, I couldn't divide in third grade because no third grader could do that.

The best example of my experiences though was actually a positive one, probably because it stands out so well.

In fourth grade every morning we had some sort of logic puzzle type thing to do. My teacher realized that these didn't challenge me, though I found them fun. He also realized that interacting with people was a weakness of mine. The combination of these meant that he set it up such that I explained to the class how to solve these logic puzzles once a week, so that I'd be challenged and learn something from the need to explain things to people in a way they understood while they were learning how to do these puzzles. Beyond just having it be me explaining things, it was also specifically me explaining things I found fun.

I wonder how much this teacher can be credited with me eventually becoming a strong tutor in math because I could see it being a lot .

Education system (at least where I am) sucks

I think that the two big positives of my "For Gawd's Sake, Leave The Kid Alone" special education plan were:

(1) I got to be alone, so I could hyperfocus the classroom, teachers, students, and my sensory issues away. First, Do No Harm.

(2) I was not forced to conform to methods of learning that did not work for me. Instead, I had to work on my own to discover for myself the methods of learning that did work for me, so I had to do much more work than the other students, and I probably screwed up some things in the process, but at least I was not forced to conform to something that was totally wrong for me. Second, Do No Harm.

The biggest problem that I had in school came in 7th grade. The transition from grade school to junior high was harrowing for me. For the whole school year, I suffered from massive amounts of sensory overload and existed in a constant state of discombobulation. It took most of junior high for me to adjust, but by high school, I was fine.

Negative.
I slipped through all the cracks. Because I performed very well academically, nobody noticed that I had some serious problems. I only just made it through the system and came out with an average set of grades rather than the A's I was predicted to get. I left school with my exam results, but that's all I left with. I was clueless when it came to dealing with the real world. I went on to university and fell apart in a big way. I was never given the option of NOT going to university - at my school, everybody went on to university because we were all clever. But the cleverness masked the problems. If a child is getting good grades, why interfere?
When I saw the doctor at the local psychiatric hospital, she told me that as soon as she heard what school I had gone to, she knew I was going to be "one of those kids". Very interestingly, she told me that an unusually high proportion of her patients are former students of my school. Which either implies that the school's poor pastoral care causes problems, or the fact that it's a school for intelligent children means that there are going to be more people with HFA and/or prone to depression than a "normal" school.

Very very negative. Constantly bullied, but with no support from anyone. Teaching was too slow so I was bored and ended up teaching myself stuff. Was only diagnosed this year, keep wondering how things could have been different had I been diagnosed when I was at school.

The results so far seem pretty negatively weighted, though I can't say I wasn't expecting it as my own experience was negative.
For those who have answered or still yet to answer - first of all has it effected you to this day, and if so, how?
And thanks to the ones who have replied so far!

Due in part to complex PTSD from the bullying and other experiences in school I am currently on disability for major depression. I did end up with a college degree and a paying job, but my elementary and high school years were detrimental to my overall success.

My experiance was negative......full of cliques, teachers being in on picking on or bullying me, no real learning and being shoved into a little box I did not fit inside.

school is s**t.