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Julianna Cohen

Prof. Rodrick

ENGL 115

26 October 2017

To Conform or To Not Conform

Do you want to be who you are or do you want to be like everybody else? Has anyone

ever told that to you? In society, people feel like they can both stand up and be who they are or

have to conform to a model that society has set for us. With children who have autism, schools

call this mainstreaming. Mainstreaming means that kids with autism and who are on the autism-

spectrum have to conform to fit into the mold that schools have set up for students. They are not

involved in the extra programs and help that will allow them to maintain their own identity.

While schools believe that all children should follow the same model and adjust their identity,

students on the spectrum should not have to due to; needing the extra monitoring and help, being

labeled as a group and not having an individual identity, and being labeled as someone who is

retarded and not being recognized for the true identity that makes them who they are.

While children with autism do attend public schools with school district funding, children

on the spectrum have a better chance of being who they are while excelling in school with extra

help and programs. Students go to school to study and learn and by these experiences they

discover their interest and their strengths and weaknesses. With kids with autism, they may not

be able to express what they like in school and their strengths and being able to get help for what

they are struggling in. As stated by Laura Madsen in her article, Mainstreaming May Not

Benefit Autistic Students, children may display some mild signs of autismperhaps poor

coordination, or they focus on certain things for longer periods of time than usual and then
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children who display more severe autistic traits, and can have difficulty learning because of

reduced attention spans, or maybe even display signs of aggression under circumstances and

teachers and personnel at public schools may not be equipped or trained to handle these

behaviors and situations (Madsen). Children with autism and who express the mild symptoms

can be mistaken as just children with behavioral problems so with hiring the trained professional

needed to watch over and help them, they can bring out more of their identity and excel in

school. Madsen is stating that teachers and school professionals need to understand that there are

different levels of autism and that you have to recognize each level as needing help. High

functioning autistic children are known to be able to contain more social skills than children who

are more on the low functioned end of the spectrum. In her article Madsen also states an example

of a school experiment that went a little bit out of hand because the person in charge of the

experiment, was never told that there were some special needs children in the groups that could

require extra supervision and while working with a soap solution and not-toxic paint, one of

the autistic children at the table wound up drinking some of the soapy paint solution as a result

which was from lack of needed supervision (Madsen). These children needed to be watched, and

due to lack of supervision by the extra aides specifically for students who needed extra

supervision, there was more harm that could of occurred to the child. A childs identity can

change from one event and it is unfair that these kids might now always be known for this due to

lack of proper supervision. The aides job was to watch the kids and make sure they were safe

and they were not able to successfully do this. If schools do not pertain to a standard of

supervision and watchfulness to autistic students than mainstreaming is not seen as a viable

option.
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Even though children with autism are still individuals with their own strengths and

weaknesses, they struggle with their identity because schools are known to group them together

and say that they are all the same. As stated by Thomas Sowell in his article titled, Many

Diagnoses of Autism Are False, some parents who had their children diagnosed as autistic later

found that, it has become obvious that many of these children are not autistic and that they

were having diagnoses by people who never set foot in a medical school or received any

comparable training that would qualify them to diagnose autism (Sowell). Sowell describes the

frustration that misdiagnoses and unfair group classification can put on the children and parents

and that it can later travel to school and beyond. Parents and schools are allowing these

diagnoses to define their kids even though the diagnosis may be false and eventually cause more

harm than good. Grouping kids with different disorders and behavioral issues all together and

saying that they all need the same treatment does not allow individual students to get the proper

help they need and does not allow individual identities to be expressed. Also Sowell also states

in his article, the autism spectrum provides a way to not group diagnose kids but provides

wiggle room for those who were wrong, so that they can avoid having to admit that they were

wrong and this correlates with schools having an excuse of why they might be group typing

kids who need extra help (Sowell). Schools and the doctors who may diagnose or label kids

sometimes over reach or misjudge too quickly and Sowell is introducing a way that the people

who diagnose can cover themselves if they diagnose to harshly or just plainly wrong. Children

who become labeled with something can feel that who they were is gone and that they have a

whole new identity they did not even approve of. Children at a young age are at the point of their

lives finding out who they are and what they feel makes them who they are and labeling them

with something that may not even involve them is wrong.

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Due to children being labeled with autism, sometimes they are misunderstood and labeled

for being retarded or not smart when they are may be quite intelligent or truly gifted kids. As

Lawrence Scahill states in his article Autism is Not an Epidemic back in the earlier times of

autism diagnosing, the instruments were not very good at differentiating between children with

mental retardation alone and those with both autism and mental retardation which means that

some kids were given an extra label that was not even relevant to them or necessary (Scahill).

Scahill is stating that doctors diagnosed children with mental retardation who truly had autism

but they also sometimes group kids who were only autistic onto a spectrum that labeled them as

also mentally retarded. Schools take these diagnoses and then label kids together to which does

not allow for the proper growth and development that kids need. As seen in this YouTube video

posted by Ramapati Singhania, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPzZQIVm660, kids

who become mainstreamed do have success but schools have to factor in the mental and

physical effects of mainstreaming kids (Living With Autism | Your Childs Needs In

Mainstream Schools). Schools use less funding when kids are group labeled and not put into the

proper programs. Autistic kids may have trouble expressing who they are and without help on

how to, identity does not come through and even be a place in their lives.

School is supposed to be a place where kids can learn and be themselves but with schools

wanting to mainstream autism-spectrum related students, their identity is not known with them;

not getting the proper extra help and monitoring, being group labeled with kids with other

disorders or even misdiagnosed, and being labeled retarded or stupid with even no

intelligence limitations. Children need help when they learn basic social and motors skills and

providing the needed personnel and assistance is just one way that schools are supposed to help

kids discover who they are and what they are capable of. Kids need to learn self-expression and
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being able to vocally express even the slightest thing and this is what that extra help can do for

autistic kids. Misdiagnosing kids does not allow anyone to get the proper treatment that they

need and could eventually make a small problem with no issues worse. Group labeling kids does

not allow one individuals problem be known from all the others and does not let him get the

proper help and may cause him/her to be berated for something they did not do. Having anyone

being labeled retarded or stupid can cause someone to feel hurt and while some autistic kids

are not able to understand the emotions that come with these words, it is allowing others to think

of them in a negative light without knowing the real them and that the label may not even apply

to them at all. Autistic children are not all lacking in intelligence and labeling someone with this

in school can have negative consequences to them and even someone in the school that may

actually need the help that will be given. Identity is how everyone is viewed in the world and if

we give one institution the power to change who individuals are, all that true self is gone.
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Work Cited

Living With Autism | Your Childs Needs In Mainstream Schools Youtube. Uploaded by

Ramapati Singhania, 2 August 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPzZQIVm660. Accessed 26 October 2017.

Madsen, Laura. "Mainstreaming May Not Benefit Autistic Students." Behavioral Disorders,

edited by Roman Espejo, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010640250/OVIC?u

=csunorthridge&xid=26dc7b8a. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017. Originally published as

"Mainstreaming: Maybe That's Not the Way to Go," www.theladyinredblog.com, 12 Sept.

2012.

Scahill, Lawrence. "Autism Is Not an Epidemic." Behavioral Disorders, edited by Louise I.

Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context.

Accessed 17 Oct. 2017. Originally published in Pediatric News, vol. 42, Apr. 2008, p. 24.

Sowell, Thomas. "Many Diagnoses of Autism Are False." Mental Illness, edited by Mary E.

Williams, Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, Accessed 17 Oct. 2017. Originally published as "The Autism 'Spectrum,',"

Conservative Chronicle, 17 Sept. 2003, p. 29.