Does education matter in treatment of people?

[carylfan10]

I've been thinking about this lately. My son who is autistic tends to have meltdowns when we go out in public. I live in a rural town, and when he has one of his meltdowns at WalMart we get treated with disdain, dirty looks and commenting on my parenting. When we go to Easton Mall, which tends to attract an upper class crowd, he gets treated with respect and sympathy. I apologized profusely to parents and children, and they treated me so well. I just have to wonder what the difference is. does education matter?

[anndra_w]

I've been thinking about this lately. My son who is autistic tends to have meltdowns when we go out in public. I live in a rural town, and when he has one of his meltdowns at WalMart we get treated with disdain, dirty looks and commenting on my parenting. When we go to Easton Mall, which tends to attract an upper class crowd, he gets treated with respect and sympathy. I apologized profusely to parents and children, and they treated me so well. I just have to wonder what the difference is. does education matter?

I think maybe different social groups have different manners and react differently to different things. However I think education does make a difference, not with everyone but in many cases. At the end of the day the atmosphere in an environment that is less working class is more pleasant and less threatening and while I know that sounds awful it's also true. The reason for this however maybe be that these environments don't suffer from the same social problems that come with poverty which is why they feel safer. What we need to question however is why education for the poor is so bad that it's leaving some so ignorant?

[fireweaver]

You are probably right on the education thing. I can only address the situation in the USA, though. Here, we have 50 different, competing state school boards. Texass tried to rewrite its curriculum to (1) allow teaching creationism ("cretinism") at the expence of evolution, (2) rewrite history to eliminate the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, (3) do away with any meaningful form of sex education ("abstinence-only"), and a couple of other travesties that slip my mind.

Although teaching evolution is now allowed, most high school science and biology teachers (some of whom two-time as sports coaches) don't really understand the subject, and a lot of them are cretin(ist)s anyway. Local parents in my area go totally ballistic when evolution is mentioned.

The history thing got axed and what passes for "sex education" is still in place.

What we lack is a national authority that sets standards for schools. If you really want to know just how sorry the educational system in the United States actually is, have a read here. (big PDF file)

Another item of interest. (a bit out of date)

[RedBeetEggs]

I would have thought the opposite actually, I've found that people (educated or not) who tend to gravitate towards the non-Walmart stores are less tolerant and snobby of others. I expect kids to act out at Walmart, 99% of the time because those parents are letting them run wild. Your son can't help his behavior and I don't think you should have to apologize for it either. People are generally more understanding because they've become more aware, that's more of a social thing, IMO.

I know plenty of college educated idiots

[david1987]

As long as people are taught that things like autism are "a disease", there will be prejudice.

[fireweaver]

As long as people are taught that things like autism are "a disease", there will be prejudice.

Seems like you're OK with autism. Why not accept gays as well? Granted, they are DIFFERENT categories of people, but if you can accept one, then why not the other. That child had no choice in being born autistic, neither does a gay person. So what's the problem.

Unless you are autistic yourself. (Look it up, it covers a wide variety of things.)

[Emmerdalefan]

Seems like you're OK with autism. Why not accept gays as well? Granted, they are DIFFERENT categories of people, but if you can accept one, then why not the other. That child had no choice in being born autistic, neither does a gay person. So what's the problem.

Unless you are autistic yourself. (Look it up, it covers a wide variety of things.)

Well said. I second that. Amen to that.

[Scarlett]

I would guess that people more informed about austism would be sympathetic to the situaton than someone who knows very little about the subject - knowledge is power y'all.

[Fajita Mel]

I agree with RBE. There are plenty of college-educated idiots out there. The people making the comments are ignorant in the respect that:

A) They don't know anyone in a similar situation

B) They have never raised a child

C) They let their "normal" (what is normal?) children act out but would rather make an example of someone else to take the spotlight away from them

D) A combination of some or all of the above

My brother has asperger's syndrome and wasn't diagnosed until he was 22. There were so many wrong and late diagnoses in my family that I have thought about becoming an advocate for better and proper mental health diagnostic testing and education. Furthermore, if biology and health classes are required credits to graduate from high school, shouldn't a curriculum include a psychology class, too?

[Scarlett]

I agree with RBE. There are plenty of college-educated idiots out there. The people making the comments are ignorant in the respect that:

A) They don't know anyone in a similar situation

B) They have never raised a child

C) They let their "normal" (what is normal?) children act out but would rather make an example of someone else to take the spotlight away from them

D) A combination of some or all of the above

My brother has asperger's syndrome and wasn't diagnosed until he was 22. There were so many wrong and late diagnoses in my family that I have thought about becoming an advocate for better and proper mental health diagnostic testing and education. Furthermore, if biology and health classes are required credits to graduate from high school, shouldn't a curriculum include a psychology class, too?

In my high school pysch was an elective (which meant option, not requirement).

[Fajita Mel]

My point being that psych should probably be a requirement instead of an option to have the ignorant of society become less ignorant.

[PT Freakin' G]

You could do some "What Would You Do?"-type studies on that, daphne. Whenever I've gone to Wal-Mart, the poor families are always yelling at each other. They're so loud they make it impossible to shop there. What I've never understood though is that despite all that anger and hostility around them, they seem content.

At normal retail stores, I've noticed that children who are visibly autistic or handicap in some way are excused, but a generally misbehaved child will get lots of "you need to leave" looks. I certainly give that look, too.

[McGarrett .]

I feel social status might have something to do with it..

Myself personally when I see a child acting unruly I tend to have sympathy for the parent or guardian..

Some kids just have mental problems.. But the parents need to shop.. So I find it stupid to get all upset about it upsetting my shopping experience..

Not like most tantrums don't last more than a few seconds...

[CarlD]

I have no sympathy for the parent, most times these tantrums happen BECAUSE of bad parenting.

The mother is usually texting away and says something (without even looking away from her phone) like "be quiet honey and I'll buy you a present"

Autistic children, etc can't really help it.

[McGarrett .]

I have no sympathy for the parent, most times these tantrums happen BECAUSE of bad parenting.

The mother is usually texting away and says something (without even looking away from her phone) like "be quiet honey and I'll buy you a present"

Autistic children, etc can't really help it.

Well I never had children but raised a couple of teens.. That might be somewhat true.. But only in some cases..

If a kid is throwing a tantrum over a toy then the right thing to do is to ignore regardless of the tantrum..

Some kids are just bad regardless of how wonderful the parents are...

THere is bad parents...

But sometimes there are just rotton kids.. There is no perfect recipe to parenting.. THat much I know...

And especially iwith a child who has special needs... A parent who is frustrated with their kids most certainly doesn't need to be more exasperated by my eyeroll!!

[Darius]

I had a friend in college with a severe case of Tourette's Syndrome and whenever we went in public he / we would get dirty looks and even verbal responses from people. But usually when I explained the situation, those people were cool. So yeah, I think education makes a difference.