- Thread starter
- #2,201
Henrietta23
Yard Farmer
After beating myself up for months over our decision to put DS into public school for 1st and 2nd grade and having an absolutely miserable time of it last year, I found the silver lining this morning.
We have a man in his 50s who attends our church. He resides in a group home and is brought by his care taker. They do not stick around after the service so I don't know too much about him, other than my own assumptions. Once in a while he will call out something random during a service. If his caretaker hushes him that is usually the end of it. We are used to it. We respect his right to be at church. But this morning something was different and he got more and more agitated. He got louder and didn't stop. One of his louder outbursts was, "Do you like cheese? I like cheese!" followed by some incoherent stuff. At this point his caretaker was working to get him to leave since he couldn't calm down. We were at the altar rail for communion at this point so it was quiet except for him. Our priest came down from the altar to go talk to him and help the woman get him outside. Eventually that is what happened, but it was quite, um, distracting, shall we say? Anyway, they got outside, Father came back inside and we continued the service. My son? My 8 year old little boy? His reaction? "Mom, does he have autism?" Me: "I'm not sure, but he has that or something like it, hon." "Oh, okay." Wish a few of the adults had taken it so calmly. Most did, but one or two were upset by it.
The point? If nothing else came of two years in that school, he came away with a little bit of an understanding of autism, and acceptance and compassion. I'm not sure he'd have gotten that if he had been in private school all that time and not in class with several autistic children.
We have a man in his 50s who attends our church. He resides in a group home and is brought by his care taker. They do not stick around after the service so I don't know too much about him, other than my own assumptions. Once in a while he will call out something random during a service. If his caretaker hushes him that is usually the end of it. We are used to it. We respect his right to be at church. But this morning something was different and he got more and more agitated. He got louder and didn't stop. One of his louder outbursts was, "Do you like cheese? I like cheese!" followed by some incoherent stuff. At this point his caretaker was working to get him to leave since he couldn't calm down. We were at the altar rail for communion at this point so it was quiet except for him. Our priest came down from the altar to go talk to him and help the woman get him outside. Eventually that is what happened, but it was quite, um, distracting, shall we say? Anyway, they got outside, Father came back inside and we continued the service. My son? My 8 year old little boy? His reaction? "Mom, does he have autism?" Me: "I'm not sure, but he has that or something like it, hon." "Oh, okay." Wish a few of the adults had taken it so calmly. Most did, but one or two were upset by it.
The point? If nothing else came of two years in that school, he came away with a little bit of an understanding of autism, and acceptance and compassion. I'm not sure he'd have gotten that if he had been in private school all that time and not in class with several autistic children.
It grew much faster and bigger than the first time. More than a little creepy.
(even though I know we will all feel like 
in a few months)
