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School Struggles

S

starfox64_0

Active Member
What's the normal struggles in schools for an Aspie? I was flying through school without any problems all the way up to HS and all of a sudden I hit a wall. The past three years I've had problems varying from understanding physics labs to simply being able to type a paper and Im not sure why. Ignoring the fact that I took naps at recess because no one ever wanted to talk to me, elementary was easy. Middle school was t bad but I had teachers I could go to. I switched schools right after freshman year and ever since then I'm constantly struggling with something.

Why is it I can understand economical and real estate trends in a breeze but struggle to simply write a paper on The Crucible? I have hard times understanding written directions just about as much as spoken ones. Sometimes I understand it better if I make the person explain it to me, but if it's wrote my mind becomes a brick wall.

My attention skills are so bad in some classes like pre calculus I practically fall asleep from boredom because I can pick up what we are doing super fast, but the second I'm working in the text book I get confused.

I'm to the point of instead of feeling like I'm smart enough to handle everything I feel like I'm as dumb as the guy asking my teacher what her underwear looks like...(which I don't understand why he'd want to know but...it's totally irrelevant to Spanish class.)
 
Dr. Grandin (whose doctorate is in engineering not in psychiatry, but she still understands autism better than most psychiatrists) claims that people think differently, that she herself has no problem with maths except algebra because she is a visual thinker. I don't quite buy her claim that the upper limit of ways to think is three, but that's beside the point. The point is that the thinking required for understanding economics is not the same as the thinking you need to understand Arthur Miller.

For me, I think the problem was more that the room was packed with people, and people who were chatting at that. By the time I got home from school I was too exhausted to do anything. Maybe even that has to do with how meaningful the class felt.
 
Interesting? 95% of the problems I had in school where because of the other students. As far as the academic side goes. I probably struggle about the same as the other students did. HS tends to get academically harder as you move up.

Interesting to hear that you had little to no problems with the other students. 99% of all struggles that aspies have in school is because of other students.
 
starfox64_0 said:
Why is it I can understand economical and real estate trends in a breeze but struggle to simply write a paper on The Crucible? I have hard times understanding written directions just about as much as spoken ones. Sometimes I understand it better if I make the person explain it to me, but if it's wrote my mind becomes a brick wall.
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Well, The Crucible is an awful, awful play. :rolleyes: Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Your strengths appear to be economics and knowing how bad Arthur Miller is.
 
Is it? ('The Crucible' is an awful, awful play. Flinty )

I didn't know any better. I thought it was ok.

But....I liked Great Expectations and Silas Marner, too.
And The Scarlett Letter. Not much on Waiting for Godot.
The Skin of Our Teeth I liked. Oedipus was punchy.
Ummm...back on track...

I was very impressed with 'Death of a Salesman' when I
saw it the first time---I was a child. Maybe 10.
 
FreeDiver said:
Interesting? 95% of the problems I had in school where because of the other students. As far as the academic side goes. I probably struggle about the same as the other students did. HS tends to get academically harder as you move up.

Interesting to hear that you had little to no problems with the other students. 99% of all struggles that aspies have in school is because of other students.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean it in terms of I never struggled with my peers, I said I slept during recess didn't I? I've always had trouble with other people, constantly bullied and teased for how I talk to yelled at for saying the wrong thing. Not to mention them constantly talking and making other noises. The normal school system absolutely sucks. Especially when you don't get diagnosed because your father refuses to get you screened, you get yelled at for acting autistic by your family, and when you do get diagnosed at the age of 15 it's ADHD and you don't get told anything about it. Even now after moving in with my mom I'm trying to get her to get me in with a new psych to try and figure this stuff out and she's not doing anything at all. She just says I'm working on it. I haven't even seen her call someone or try and find another spot around where I live for it.

I was mainly just trying to focus on the academics side of things to see if people have tips for focusing and getting back into the loop of homework when you have to stop for stupid reasons. I already have focusing issues where there are days I forget to eat or even go to the restroom because I'm working on something and I'll ignore it till it hurts.

Being exhausted from constantly going over what I'm thinking before opening my mouth and trying to not get into people's conversations or start singing the song playing a million times through my head doesn't help with school at all.

I love to learn, but I absolutely hate the school system.
 
For me it was definitely bullying the kids thought I was weird because I was quiet and use to make fun about how I was really into drawing and that I carried my drawing folder wherever I went,i was also bad at math which was something I was bullied for aswell,I use to get so focused on drawing that I use to draw in classes that I shouldn't and had a teacher get angry at me one time so school was pretty hard for me.
 
starfox64_0 said:
I was mainly just trying to focus on the academics side of things to see if people have tips for focusing and getting back into the loop of homework when you have to stop for stupid reasons.
Click to expand...

"Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence" talks about how paying attention is a trainable skill. Focusing on a task forgetting about all the things going on around you – that's supposed to be the aspie specialty, but frankly I think aspies who do it have practised it too, out of necessity. Focus is an act of will.
 
tree said:
Is it? ('The Crucible' is an awful, awful play. Flinty )

I didn't know any better. I thought it was ok.
Click to expand...

I've never seen it acted, just read the script. It was the one book from school that was torture to me. It was certainly no Caesar and Cleopatra.
 
Flinty said:
I've never seen it acted, just read the script. It was the one book from school that was torture to me. It was certainly no Caesar and Cleopatra.
Click to expand...

Ah...maybe the difference was I didn't have to read it.
I just read it at home, on my own. It was not fun, but
I didn't hate it.

I hated having to recite 'poetry' in 3rd grade.
Something about a shadow that went in & out with me
and was stretchy like a rubber ball. I didn't like that.
 
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