When I got up earlier than usual this morning to write posts for steemit, I was confronted by today’s controversial and polarising comment by infamous Australian politician Pauline Hanson (see below).
Now, usually, being that she heads her own small political party I don’t concern myself too much with her comments, because her vote (and the votes of her party) do not have a huge influence in the Senate, but today her comments just hit way too close to home for me to remain silent.
Ms Hanson, who has declared at various times and for various reasons that I will not discuss here (you’re all familiar with Google) that Asians and Muslims are not welcome in our beautiful country, made a statement about children with Autism and education.
I haven’t been on steemit long, so it’s probably news to most that I have 12 beautiful grand children. For reasons unknown (genetics, who knows we don’t) each of my children, has at least one child in their family with Austism.
So when Ms Hanson declared in her speech to the Senate, that children with Autism should be removed from classrooms across Australia, because they were holding back neuro typical children (children not on the Austism spectrum), by monopolising the time of teachers, I almost choked on my morning coffee.
Now this is a highly complex and controversial issue, and due to our personal involvement with a sample of 12 both neruo typical and autistic children, our family is in a unique position to see both sides of the issue.
When I arrived on steemit just a week ago I was introduced by my daughter 
So they attend a school where they get a student/teacher/carer ratio that is necessary for their level of Autism, that has special facilities to ensure their ongoing education, needs, health and safety.
However, 
Just so we are clear on my position, I think that in a regular school is exactly where they should be. It’s not like they will leave school and go live on another planet away from the neuro typical kids, why socially disadvantage them as well. Don’t they have enough to deal with!
I make that statement with this caveat!
This should be in conjunction with the assessment by each child’s paediatrician, occupational therapist, speech therapist etc relative to that individual child’s needs and the resources and staff available at the relevant school.
As parents and grandparents we can rightly be highly emotional about what we think is best for our beautiful ones, but we have to ameliorate that with objective advice. Not easy at all…
Some of the experiences that my grand children have been exposed to being integrated into regular schools have not been pleasant (see photo above, some of my 12 grand children). Some of these are the result of poor understanding of Autism by teaching and support staff. On other occasions, it is the result of the critical lack of funding for schools, teachers and support staff.
Either way I believe this is not acceptable and must be addressed!
I'm very new here so I don't know who will read this and what your thoughts may be, but at least I'm hoping to provoke some discussion in the steemit community in Australia and hopefully beyond...
The rate of Autism is climbing dramatically worldwide, if you don’t know someone affected now, chances are you will in the next few years.
Thank you for sticking with me to the end and if you have ideas, suggestions, revelations, I'd love to hear them. Have a great day