A woman came into the historic building with a boy of about six or seven years old. I noticed the boy's eyes light up when he saw the old rooms. I heard one of the volunteers ask the woman about the kid, and heard that he'd 'had issues' at school, had been bullied and had now been excluded. They came over and listened to me playing, and the boy and I got chatting nineteen to the dozen. The woman was completely flabbergasted, because the boy apparently never talks to strangers. Anyway he wandered off into the next room and I asked the woman a question and, yes, he is autistic. What struck me immediately was how intelligent he obviously is. He told me he had taught himself to play some tunes on the guitar, and that he practices every day. He said he doesn't like to play it in front of people, but I told him I'd like to hear it, and that he must bring his guitar round when he's ready.
That kid is another sad statistic. One intelligent, autistic child, bullied by the other kids because they think he is strange, so the school expels him for being 'difficult' and 'a problem'. Look. If I can talk to that kid on his own level, and show a little bit of kindness and willingness to listen, why does the education system seem to find that so very difficult? The correct response by the school should have been to expel the rest of the class for being bullies. It's not fair.
No comments:
Post a Comment