Perspective

Dana in her corner view touched on this issue a little bit with her video. Her and I must have been thinking on the same lines. This weekend I watched a movie that really touched my heart called Temple Grandin. The story is a true story based on a young woman who has Autism. When she was 4 years old, the doctors told her mother that she would never speak and that she should be placed in an institution. Temple's mother would not take this as an answer and with much love and persistence was able to teach her daughter enough to get her into school. School was not easy for Temple or for those who had to teach her, but once again with much love and care Temple was able to graduate from high school. Her mother didn't stop there and pushed Temple to go to college. The college wanted to expel Temple not because she wasn't smart, but because they just didn't know how to work with someone like her. Temple and her family fought to keep her in school and won. Eventually, Temple went on to receive a Ph.D. and changed not only how Autism is looked at today, but the meatpacking industry here in the United States. She was a huge animal lover and did not like the process. Anyway, over the years my husband and I have had a huge debate on whether to homeschool our children, send them to private school, or send them to the public. In the end, we choose to send them to public though it hasn't been ideal. We want them to be able to have contact with other children, and want to support our community. The biggest obstacle for us has been that our children are very bright and don't fit into the cookie cutter mold of obedient students who just sit there and accept everything they are told. We have been told to put our children on medication for ADHD because the teacher thought they fit that category. I finally broke down 2 years ago and took them to a psychologist. We are glad we did because what he told us was that no our children did not have ADD or ADHD. He said our children were extremely bright and just bored out of their brains, and with this information we were able to go back to the school and have one of them retested for the gifted program. I love teachers and I think they have a hard job. They are often restricted by the system. I guess the thing is I wish there were more teachers who could look at teaching the way those around Temple did which is to celebrate the individual and try to bring the very best out of them. I am tired of people labeling not just my children but other peoples children as being bad just because they may be different. I am not saying we should celebrate inappropriate behavior, but what I am saying is that wouldn't this world be a much better place if we would just change our perspective a little and be more understanding. I guess I better stop here. Sorry for this long rant, but it has been something that I have been thinking about for a long time. Thanks ! To see more corner views visit Theresa who is babysitting corner view until Jane comes back.