Kind of figured that...

[amilyn]

I went to the first night of my class this evening...and, well, yeah. Not going to be so cool after all. There are three of us there with intimate knowledge of and interest in autism spectrum disorders, but the primary focuse of the class (and it sounds like all but 2-3 nights of the class) will be on learning disabilities

Comments

[julietma]

UGH! That is so frustrating. Okay, I'm projecting the feelings I had in grad school when I enrolled in a grad-level cross-cultural studies class (or something like that), so optimistic that I would be discussing with people who had taken lots of anthropology, done field work in Peru, dug wells in Africa, etc. Then it turned out to be a huge class, FULL of wide-eyed undergrads, with a teacher who was so done with Northwestern students and in her last term there. She was totally condescending, the kids in the class were largely dumbfounded by her stories of living in Hong Kong ... It was a HUGE letdown.

But I eventually just accepted it for the easy A it was. Good luck with it.

[amilyn]

The easy A is the angle I'm focusing on. But...yeah...frustrating and disappointing.

[the_shoshanna]

Aw, that stinks. Get what you can out of it, I suppose, and yeah, four free and easy semester-hours of credit, but -- argh. (Is the class big enough that you can get away with tuning in with half an ear in case somebody actually says something important, but working on something else at the same time?)

[amilyn]

Totally can do the easy-A route. It's just disappointing, but it'll be on my records that I had this grad level special ed class. Maybe I can turn this into, "Gee, I already know all this to a grad degree level...let's get a degree to show for it," mindset.

[julietma]

That's something to think about. You're a natural, so why not run with it?

[amilyn]

Exactly...and I'm thinking that it would be nice to get a doctorate in an area of autism spectrum studies...something to do with high-functioning autism and teaching and socialization and whether it's reasonable to try and make an ASD individual pretend to be an NT or if some (many?) adjustments should be made to accept that there are differences that are just TOO HARD to change.

[kevenn]

Yeah, at least it's an easy credit that'll get you to that pay increase faster. :/

[amilyn]

Quite.

[hyari]

And if the coursework isnt' so challenging, that's more time to do other stuff. :D