I have some serious doubts about the mainstream schools.  I worry about bullying in the mainstream schools, social isolation in the mainstream schools, social skills in the mainstream schools, mental health in the mainstream schools, and sensory distress in the mainstream schools, among other things.  Because of all of these problems with the mainstream, I think we need alternative options.

But I will admit to some worries about specialized schools as well.  They do have some of their own problems, and these problems need to be fixed.  I think a lot of the problems with specialized schools today are simply attributable to the fact that the people who are there don’t necessarily want to be there (which is a large part of the reason why I think individuals and families should be choosing their educational placements), but there are other issues as well.

For one thing, some specialized school programs don’t seem to end with a high school diploma.  Now, if a student would be on a modified curriculum in the mainstream anyway, so that they wouldn’t get a diploma in the mainstream either, that’s fine.  But any student who is capable of getting a high school diploma in the mainstream should have every right to get one in a specialized setting.  Anything less is unacceptable and appalling discrimination.

There’s also a broader cultural issue.  I’m concerned about the possibility that autistic kids today aren’t being prepared well for independence in adulthood.  I worry that we allow kids to become dependent on support systems, even though we’re going to whisk those support systems away in adulthood, just when the individual needs support most.  That’s setting people up for failure.  We need to prepare people for the realities of adulthood.

Unfortunately, in some ways, the specialized schools seem to make this worse.  These programs ordinarily have a high ratio of staff to students, so even if autistic children are very able, it’s easy for them to become a bit dependent on support from the school team.  (The support is there; why not take advantage of it?)  Furthermore, some of these schools seem to have a culture that is relentlessly positive, always encouraging and celebrating, regardless of whether or not students are achieving.

Now, to be sure, this sort of positive culture has its advantages.  Autistic kids often enter adulthood bogged down with mental health challenges, but choosing to enter a specialized school can help to preserve mental health.  (At least, I think so.)  The benefits of entering adulthood with good mental health are hard to exaggerate – I’m pretty sure that, given the choice between good mental health and good independence skills, we should pick the good mental health.  Our good mental health can actually help us gain those independence skills when we need them.

But I don’t think we need to make this a dichotomous choice – I don’t think we need to choose between preserving mental health or teaching independence.  A specialized school is, in a sense, a refuge, but there’s no reason we can’t also let students in specialized school learn through experiences of challenge and even (occasionally) failure.  Yes, let’s be positive; yes, let’s be encouraging!  Yes, we can and should work to buttress the shaky self-esteem of many of the refugees fleeing the mainstream school.  But we can do this selectively, not indiscriminately.  I’m not saying we should only reward achievement – rewarding effort is great – but let’s try to save praise for occasions when it’s deserved.  If we always praise, I fear we send the message that we have no expectations of students: that anything they achieve has already exceeded our minuscule expectations.  Let’s not protect people to the point of infantilizing them or sending the message that we don’t really expect them to achieve anything.

Telling someone that you believe in them and in their ability is great, but I think it is worth a lot less than showing, through your behaviour, that you believe in them.  And I think you do that by giving students challenges – or, if you want to view them more positively, opportunities.