Field trip reflection

Reflection on Barb Retenbach

“Be open and appreciative of neurodiversity.”  This quote during the lecture with Barb and Lois stands out to me and makes me think realize what a vast variety of minds I will encounter in my time as a teacher but also in life.  We are all different people encountering different individuals every single day.  Do we ever stop to appreciate the diversity that any one person may bring into our lives…how they may change our way of thinking and doing life?

Barb is a remarkable and humorous woman.  Through her writing and an hour of actions and interactions the other night, she widened my appreciation for people who use facilitated communication.  Because I watched the video, I had been introduced to the various ways in which people with autism can communicate, but seeing firsthand was another experience entirely.  I have to admit that I was a bit nervous and felt ill-equipped to interact with Barb, if that is what we were to do.  I have little experience working with people with autism, specifically those who use facilitated communication, but I was also excited to learn more and to gain tools and strategies.

Something that struck me was the ways in which Barb used the word, “normals.”  She refers to those of use who do not have to use facilitated communication or who do not have autism as “normals.”  It seemed odd to me that she would refer to us as such when her “normal” is defined in such a different way.  She talked about how the world with autism is a good thing…how “normals” don’t take the time to enjoy things in the same ways that those people with autism may.  We may hurry through life, jumping from task to task (the fact that I say “task” in the first place is a good example of how things are measured in “have-to-dos”) and oftentimes do not give ourselves the luxury of enjoyment.  Barb does life deliberately and meaningfully, albeit in a very different way that what many of us are used to.

Barb’s rules, that we need to be “open,” “part of the solution,” “informed,” “mindful” and just be ourselves seem like such simple ways to approach life, yet we fail to do so in so many ways.  I reflect upon the various ways in which I could be all of these things in better ways as a teacher and as a human.  I reflect upon my current practice and have already begun to practice some of these things in my daily interactions with students, paying careful attention to those who may need the extra care, kindness or understanding on any given day or in any particular situation.  I was blown away by Barb and Lois and will be ordering Barb’s book for a more extensive understanding about her but about others with autism I will surely encounter in my life.