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Paul Grobstein's picture

Neurodiversity and education

A "learning oportunity". Nice lead in for our upcoming discussion of brain and education ....

  • Should education have as an objective changing attitudes about diversity so that differences are regarded as assets rather than threats?
  • Does education adequately serve this objective currently?
  • How might it be altered to better serve it?

Perhaps even more interestingly ...

  • Does education currently enhance or diminish neurodiversity?
  • Should education enhance or diminish neurodiversity?
  • What practices do/would contribute to either objective?
Apropos of our last conversation, I just finished reading A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World by Susanne Antonetta. Interesting book, stylistically ("My husand, Bruce, reads this and says, Tell them it's a bipolar book"), in terms of content ("I have manic-depressive disorder, and one of the major changes my life has character has been ... just having people I can talk to. Really talk. Of the people I'm closest to ... one has the form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome. One has multiple personalities ...."), and in terms of message ("neurodiversity ultimately describes everyone, like racial diversity", "Have you ever noticed that 'normal' people cannot think about the possibility thta everyone's mind is 'vastly and mysteriously different from my own").

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