True. That's the difficulty with diagnosing any mental disorder of course. And especially when medication gets involved and parents have a personal conflicting interest it should be handled very carefully, but from what I've experienced and heard the people who are in the position to make a first diagnosis are often incompetent. I think I once told you the story of how a psychologist told me that I can't have any form of autism 'because you looked me in the eye when you shook my hand, and you're able to go to college'

This is one of the most true things I've ever read on MB. Props to you Steph for calling it like you see it.

I had a lot of friends in elementary/middle school who acted out and were always trying to start trouble. Because school has not necessarily been devised for young boys, and it's mostly women running the school system, they have trouble with young boys and eventually get tired of dealing with them.

So, they talk with the parents about their behavior, they take them to the doctors, and the doctors are more than happy to prescribe them pills to "fix" their behavior.

Drug the kids so your life is easier. It's pretty nasty business. I remember having friends whose personality would change drastically when they took these medications. And the teachers would even make nonchalant comments in front of other kids like "[xxxx] obviously hasn't taken his medication today".

I ****ing hated primary school. Just a bunch of glorified babysitters.

We had a different acronym for it in my day: BLALB (Behaving Like A Little Bastard) :laughing: Also, Autism was referred to as being "nervous" or "Highly-strung". And no, we didn't pay the witch doctor in pebbles, smart ass. You know how much one pebble bought in my time?!!

Here we go with Trollheart's "Back in my day" stories.

They should read some of our exchanges

j/k

:laughing:

honestly, being a moderator on a music forum should be classified as a symptom of autism

lol

Oh god the teacher lunch table... ****ing **** pissed me off so much. And they wondered why I sat alone reading my novel. All they ever did was bitch about the kids.

They drove me crazy too tbh but I didn’t want to talk about during lunch. Plus, it’s unprofessional unless there’s an academic purpose to it.

That's a good point. Sort of related to that, I once overheard two teachers gossiping about who's dating who among the students and it weirded me out, like that's student talk, you're kind of supposed to rise above that ****.
I also had some teachers who openly gossiped to the students about other teachers though, that **** was hilarious

Idk the situation but that can be really harmful to a teacher’s career if the students know the other faculty don’t respect them.

With adolescents it’s a killer. I got real teachery about it “If you say anything bad about Ms So&So it’s the same as being disrespectful directly to me. If you have a problem in her class I can arrange a meeting with guidance for you.”

Not saying it was the same what you’re talking about. Not judging.

In really dysfunctional schools the kids are weaponized against certain teachers though. If they know no one has got your back they’re ****ing sharks.

Oh sorry you meant when you were a student. I thought you were talking about your colleagues.

Yup, I'm right there with you. And then they go home and drink their cheap wine, bitch about it to their husbands who have heard this **** a million times (usually....or their cats) and then they go back in the next day and the cycle continues.

There are some teachers who genuinely care about their students and helping them learn and grow - and god bless those teachers. I only had a couple like that in my life. More often than not, it was the tenured ones who couldn't give a rat's ass if you learned or not and they were just there collecting their paycheck and babysitting you.