CONTRADICTIONS APLENTY.
One day, after an exam at university, I was having a chat with a guy in my class who talked about cars and I asked him what sort he had. He replied that he had two, a Gemini and a Falcon. This may surprise many people because the cars are made by arch-rivals, Holden and Ford respectively (GMC, Vauxhall and Opel for my American and European readers). He mentioned that the Falcon was easier to drive than the Gemini, but the Gemini was cheaper to run than the Falcon, a sentiment that I could understand, as my very first car was a Gemini, and while it had a responsive engine, it was heavy to steer and it didn't have power steering. The Gemini had a four cylinder Isuzu engine (the car was built in Australia) and the Falcon a six. The Falcon's arch-rival, the Holden Commodore, had rack and pinion steering and the Falcon had a steering box. Historically, the Commodore had heavier steering than the Falcon and the Falcon had a softer ride and was more comfortable to sit in than the Commodore. You cannot directly compare a Gemini to a Falcon, you could compare a Gemini to a Ford Escort, and perhaps later a Laser. On the economics, though, a four-cylinder engine is cheaper on petrol than a six.
Just the same, a few weeks ago, my mechanic asked me if I liked driving my father's Falcon. I said that I did, but I liked my RAV4 better, mainly because you sit much higher in it (when you climb into the Falcon, it feels like you're sitting on the floor, once you're used to a higher car) but I didn't mind the Falcon (if only it had KYB Shocks on the front as well) and the fact that my RAV4 is Japanese.
When one considers the nonsensical rant by the leader of a far-right nationalistic minor party in Australia, and compares it with a recent programme on SBS, it is clear that SBS has done the proper research that the lunar right politician has not. We hear stories of autistic kids having meltdowns at school, I had a few, but what kept a lid on them for me (I'm not advocating its return) was a fear of corporal punishment. I was never caned at school, and one of the reasons behind that was fear, but what ignoramuses like this politician ignores is for all the talk about special classrooms, special classrooms ignore something important.
In my day at school, special schools were breeders of low expectations. They were places where kids went to receive the very basics in education, and they failed to tap into a student's full potential.
Autistic kids may have meltdowns, but we are also very bright in our areas of expertise. I loved Japanese at school, and was one of the few who enjoyed it in one of my classes. I felt sorry for one kid, in my class, who had to take Japanese, because his parents wanted him to, not because he wanted to, but he gave me a hard time, so much of that sympathy dissipated. What he needed was more understanding parents that their son may have done well in maths, but he was better geared to a trade than academia and they should have let him do art and woodwork instead. I can remember him lamenting that his father wouldn't let him do woodwork or metalwork, which may have suggested that his father was trying to live his life through his son.
Special classrooms are simply not equipped to deal with kids who are gifted and have disabilities. I can say for my own school years, I didn't like the kids I went to school with, but in my last two years of school, people found their groups and pretty well stuck to them. I can still remember an obnoxious kid telling the class about how he and some friends were at a shopping centre and a rival gang met up with them and challenged them to a fight. The language he used sounded more like an American ghetto than an Australian high school. Had I had the help I needed for maths, earlier, but been allowed to get ahead in Japanese and history, my school years would have been better. And there would have been more of an attempt by the school to separate academic kids from industrial or commercial kids, right down to English and maths. I would say that every student who has trouble in one area can have specialised help, but schools should be directed more towards finding a student's full potential than merely passing an exam.
If they made schools specially for autistic kids, with sensory rooms and education geared towards them, it would be great.
The right-wing politician was gearing a speech along the lines of comparing a Falcon to a Gemini, when the difference needs to be celebrated with an attempt to merge the best of both situations to deal with the dual issues of autistic students.