Once upon a time there was an #autistic kid who was not doing well at school. They didn't make friends and did poorly in their classes. The school provided accommodations and support, and the student's grades improved and they made some friends and everyone lived happily ever after.

Nice story. I'd pay to see that movie. But it's just what it sounds like, a fairy tale.

The reality is that autistic people don't stop being autistic, no matter how much support we get. We don't become able to operate just like NT people, no matter how many accommodations we are given. We are autistic forever. We don't outgrow it, and we don't get over it.

I used to know a school teacher who taught the class with all the neurodivergent kids. They were very supportive and tried to do right by the kids. The school provided various supports and accommodations for the kids that seemed to help. But the teacher complained a lot that even with all that support the kids did not do as well as they should, could not behave in class, and seemed to blame them for, I don't know, not trying hard enough maybe. The teacher seemed to think that giving these kids support and accommodations should let them be just like NT kids, even after years and years of that never happening.

I don't know why this is so hard for NT people to understand, but a well-adjusted autistic person is not going to be the same as an NT person, and will not have the same strengths and weaknesses. But the NT goal always seems to be to make us indistinguishable from them. Our strengths are dismissed as irrelevant, and our weaknesses are deemed disqualifying. We can only stand out in the ways NT people like to stand out. And if we don't do well in class, we should just try harder.

#ActuallyAutistic