Data collected on neurodivergent children in the absence of psychological safety isn’t representative. The moment shame is triggered, you lose them because they have no safety net. Deficit & medical model contexts are rich with shame & lean on psychological safety.
Author: Ryan Boren
Howdy. I’m Ryan Boren (he/they) with Stimpunks Foundation, a nonprofit by and for neurodivergent, disabled, and queer people. I’m a retired tech worker turned wannabe sociologist.
CV: I helped start WordPress.org, WordPress.com, WordCamp.org, and Automattic.com, among the first fully distributed organizations.
About: queer, vegetarian, autistic, bipolar, hyperlexic, power wheelchair user, neuromuscular disease
Location: Dripping Springs, Texas, USA, named after the springs at the Milk House Branch of the Edwards Aquifer, a gathering place for the Tonkawa people, who were here before us. We’re a little west of Austin in Texas Hill Country.
Current SpIns: pens and paper, everyday carry/coping, punk rock, queercore, Ezra Furman, The Linda Lindas, food anime, Thai fisherman pants, Tokyo street fashion, solarpunk, solar energy, heat pumps, electrification, library economies, third places, epistemic injustice, scrollytelling
Added a section on inspiration porn.
In preparation for Autism Acceptance Month, I’m refreshing my Autism Myths post. I updated the hashtags section to mention AutisticParent and AskingAutistics. What other tags should I mention?
“I cried because the film has empathy not only for bright but difficult children but for all children, and because it wants so much for Meg to see herself, just as I would want to be seen and would want my own child to see her value.”
“That’s the piece that’s been missing, bringing the safety to the serendipity.”
Great insights on digital pedagogy from Jesse Stommel and Kris Shaffer. Highly recommended.
http://umwdtlt.com/closing-tabs-episode-3-teaching-without-social-media/
Updated to make a connection to digital pedagogy.
“While education is often held up as the antidote to poverty, it is quite possible that the opposite is the case. An education that is dependent on homework, especially if it requires expensive technology, may actually reduce social mobility.”
Source: Homework is a Social Justice Issue – Hybrid Pedagogy
If you follow education, I recommend adding jessestommel.com and alfiekohn.org to your feed reader.
http://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/
The work of teaching shouldn’t be reduced to the mechanical act of grading or marking. Our talk of grading shouldn’t be reduced to our complaining about the continuing necessity of it.
If you’re a teacher and you hate grading, stop doing it.
Across education, we’ve normalized absurd levels of grading, test-taking, and standardized assessment. And yet letter grades are a relatively recent phenomenon. They weren’t widely used until the 1940s.
Without much critical examination, teachers accept they have to grade, students accept they have to be graded, students are made to feel like they should care a great deal about grades, and teachers are told they shouldn’t spend much time thinking about the why, when, and whether of grades. Obedience to a system of crude ranking is crafted to feel altruistic, because it’s supposedly fair, saves time, and helps prepare students for the horrors of the “real world.” Conscientious objection is made to seem impossible.
I would argue teachers grade in many more situations than grading is useful and/or actually required by institutions.
We don’t prepare students for a world of potential oppression by oppressing them.
Source: How to Ungrade | Jesse Stommel
