WHERE TEACHERS SHOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR AUTISTIC KIDS.

A particularly memorable scene for me from S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders was when Soc. Randy was sitting in his Ford Mustang with Ponyboy Curtis, a member of The Greasers, only hours before a scheduled rumble between the two rival gangs. Randy confided to Ponyboy that even if the Greasers won, it wouldn't change the social order, something that Ponyboy was aware of, too, and that sometimes he thought those in the middle were really the lucky ones.

At the time I read the book, and saw the film, my own life was one of not fitting in anywhere. I remembered kids I attended school with who identified as skateboarders, or skate heads, Bevans, although I'm not completely sure what a Bevan was, and a few others. Not being interested in skateboarding, I didn't fit into that group and I remembered a kid who was a bully, who talked like an American gangster with an Australian twist, who, one day, when we had to do an oral presentation, in Year Ten, talked about his school holidays and how he and his fellow gang members engaged in some street fighting with a rival gang and how, despite them supposedly winning, a group, eager to avenge this, piled out of a car armed with something and chased after these gang members.

Not being a member of a particular group can be isolating, but at the same time, you can avoid confrontation and gang rivalry, so there is not so much the issue of, this group thinks it is better than this one, so they fight. I was the kind of kid, who, at school, just wanted to learn and do my schoolwork. I can remember this same kid, being involved with, and laughing at the idiotic act of throwing coins into the rotating blades of a ceiling fan when the teacher was out of the room. If they were truly brave, they'd do it in front of the teacher and see what transpired.

Contrary to what many say, most autistic kids want to just do their work in silence at school and not be disruptive. It is the neuro-typical kids who don't want to learn, who are disruptive. That is not to say that all autistic kids are well-behaved and all neuro typical kids are not, however. And many autistic kids stick to the rules. I can remember, also at this school, where the rules were that you were not supposed to cut across the grass, even if the concrete paths led to nowhere, but kids would try to dare me to. Yet these same kids would then complain if they were caught and landed in trouble. My Grade Eight Maths Teacher, who was hard to get along with, had a penchant for putting people on detentions for piddling misdemeanors, such as having one's uniform shirt out (and picking up papers). I remember one year, there was a kid in one class who was a serial pest to whom he'd given a detention for running across the lawn at school. Even if it was petty, he disrupted the class by entering and asking why he didn't turn up and saying he was on detention for two days for not coming the previous day. The kid was not autistic, but he had some learning issues and was not interested in school.

Autistic kids need accommodations, but by in large, they are compliant with school rules and are well-behaved. They may rely upon teachers for more protection, but for this reason, teachers should be more appreciative of autistic kids, and for the fact that many do not seek to be involved in gang issues and don't get involved in fighting like rival gangs do.