My first awareness of what autism really is was when watching, in passing, a news cast where Greta Thunberg was giving a speech and mentioned she was autistic (2019). She did not fit what I thought autism was, so I started researching. That is when I discovered that all my life mysteries was because I am autistic. For that, I thank Greta for opening my eyes to my life.
But there are still some sub-mysteries. I did horribly bad in school. All grades. I finally managed to graduate, but just barely and with more than one repeat year. I was diagnosed as retarded and having learning disabilities. The mystery of this is that I could learn things I was interested in on my own. I could study college textbooks and get it. I became a successful self-taught electronics design engineer. I then deduced that I did not have a learning disability, but I have a social disorder. At least for me, teaching is a social thing, and anything social generates and exaggerates anxiety, making it very hard to be taught. Therefore, I assumed school was too social for me.
But then, during my family moving to a new house, I had to change schools for half a school year. The interim school was a giant integrated, very diverse school. My “regular” school was small, segregated and deeply bigoted. The teachers were my only bullies. Anyone “different” was bullied. The teachers at the big interim school were very nice. No bullies there. I made decent grades there.
It seems that a common symptom of autism is social disorders. But it appears that many autistics, including Greta Thunberg, has no problem being taught - no problem with school. I am curious how many on this forum do/did well in school or being taught.
I do feel confident that my social anxiety is an impediment to being taught but was that my sole issue or was a larger part my learning disability due to the small, backwards school with bad teachers?
Since that Greta Thunberg video, I have made huge inroads in figuring out my life, but there are still a few pockets of mysteries yet to learn.
But there are still some sub-mysteries. I did horribly bad in school. All grades. I finally managed to graduate, but just barely and with more than one repeat year. I was diagnosed as retarded and having learning disabilities. The mystery of this is that I could learn things I was interested in on my own. I could study college textbooks and get it. I became a successful self-taught electronics design engineer. I then deduced that I did not have a learning disability, but I have a social disorder. At least for me, teaching is a social thing, and anything social generates and exaggerates anxiety, making it very hard to be taught. Therefore, I assumed school was too social for me.
But then, during my family moving to a new house, I had to change schools for half a school year. The interim school was a giant integrated, very diverse school. My “regular” school was small, segregated and deeply bigoted. The teachers were my only bullies. Anyone “different” was bullied. The teachers at the big interim school were very nice. No bullies there. I made decent grades there.
It seems that a common symptom of autism is social disorders. But it appears that many autistics, including Greta Thunberg, has no problem being taught - no problem with school. I am curious how many on this forum do/did well in school or being taught.
I do feel confident that my social anxiety is an impediment to being taught but was that my sole issue or was a larger part my learning disability due to the small, backwards school with bad teachers?
Since that Greta Thunberg video, I have made huge inroads in figuring out my life, but there are still a few pockets of mysteries yet to learn.