As we near fall and the beginning of another school year I am contemplating the best schooling options for our children. We've settled on the plan for the 2008-2009 school year, but I am looking toward the future with questions. Bella & Luke will return to GMG - a small district northeast of Marshalltown they have been attending for the past 4 years. And we will continue to home school Seth along with his in-home ABA therapy and private speech and occupational therapy. These are the best options available for our kiddos here in Marshalltown. But at times I am frustrated by the lack of options, especially for Seth. The closest autism specific school is over an hour away and as I talk with parents around the state, most are dissatisfied with the programming their children with autism are receiving from their respective public school systems and yet really don't feel they have any other options. Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast when you live in a largely rural state.
Mike & I have been talking about our plans for the future in regards to schooling options, particularly for Seth. While we are very invested in the community we live in, Mike loves his job, we love our church and friends here; moving may be a necessity to provide Seth with a better educational placement. I would love to think that I can home school him long term, but in all honesty I don't know that this is the best option for him, me, or our family at large. As he has grown and started exhibiting problem behaviors, working with him throughout the day has begun to often bring me to the point of exhaustion by dinner time, leaving me with very little physical or emotional energy to give to my other children.
In addition to this contemplation over the past few week I was recently outraged by comments made by a national radio host. Last week Michael Savage made some completely ignorant comments on his program about autism. He stated his belief that the rise in autism is not a true increase, but instead basically a parenting issue - parents not disciplining their kids or teaching them how to act appropriately. He spewed a slew of nasty names to describe children with autism and claimed parents are seeking the label just to get government assistance. This type of completely idiotic thinking exhibits Savage's complete and utter lack of knowledge or compassion about autism. Having had 2 children before my child affected by autism who do obey and behave in general, his line reasoning falls apart in our particular situation. I have no idea what would prompt someone to spew such hurtful garbage at other human beings with so little understanding of the vast struggles that autism presents to children and families.
With all that many in the autism community have been doing to educate people about autism and bring greater awareness and acceptance to this illness, it is a crying shame to see someone take us in the wrong direction with such ignorant, hurtful ideas transmitted across national radio waves. Many are calling for Savage's firing over these statements and many stations are taking action to remove him from their programming. I applaud these stations! These statements do nothing to help make the way for better treatment and education for children with autism which is so greatly needed. Families in our nation affected by autism need the support and compassion of those around us, not judgement. So as I'm contemplating schooling options or the lack thereof for my son, this idiot is spewing his hateful and harmful thoughts to our entire nation, potentially affecting the thinking of individuals who will vote on funding issues for education who might think that if autism is just due to bad parenting we certainly should not commit more tax dollars to education to provide for the needs of these children. This is a dangerous line of thinking to plant in people's minds when these children have very real needs - often physical and neurological needs that take a great deal of time, attention, and money to address.
If you are a Savage listener I would challenge you to let him know your thoughts on his recent statements and if your not - make a point of turning him off if you come across his program. I wasn't a listener and now will make sure to never become one. Then continue to do your part to educate those in your world about the disease of autism and the real challenges that children and families face. Autism has been the single greatest challenge to my parenting, but I'd like to believe it has made me a better parent than I'd ever have been without it.
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