My son received an Award last night. The principal did not describe it. The award was not monetary or named for a deceased alum. No community club or business sponsored the award. Let me tell you about it.First, to qualify for the award you have to graduate from public school while wearing the hood of autism from start to finish. This hood does funky things to your senses. For Ian it was sound and smell. Either on or both of these senses could derail learning for minutes or hours as he sought to understand and deal with them. Squeaking chairs, tapping pencils, a new smell in the room, an old smell in the room he didn't like, the hood of autism would let these through and keep them close, while Ian was trying to learn.
Second, to qualify for this award you had to show courage, daily courage. Wearing the hood of autism causes stumbles, and misunderstandings and social frustrations. Ian was bullied from first grade on for wearing the hood of autism, a hood he didn't choose and couldn't shed. All through elementary school he persevered, even as his own parents didn't know about the hood and its effects. Kind teachers helped him and saw flashes of his brilliance. Other teachers only witnessed the anger and frustration of a boy walking through his day wearing a hood. Even up until this past fall Ian's peers couldn't understand him and proceeded to bully him for it to the point of tears. Yet Ian finished.
His brilliance shown through in several classes all the way through his public school career. I remember a project he did with Minecraft. He built an exact replica of Ross castle in Scotland with the correct landscape outside and each room exact inside. He did this while wearing the hood of autism.
If there was a plaque given with this award, Ian's senior words could go on it. He wrote, "After 12 years of public education, I glimpse ahead and have a sense that the next few years will be an important stepping stone that will shape the path on which my future will be built. I am ready to set this stone and leave it behind me as I tread my own path."
These are the words of a young man who has passed through the fire and learning of public school adorned in the hood of autism. These are the words of hope and a future.
