Thomas Merton in his daily musings for today found in my little book of his journal entries talks about Ecclesiastes. Paraphrasing the scripture he says, “Don’t argue about matters that don’t concern you, and when sinners judge, do not sit in counsel with them.” Carefully perhaps mindfully engaging the matters of my daily life as opposed to the quarrels of others seems to be a very good thought to start off the week. Keep focused on those issues of ours like putting bread on the table, offering love to those who need it and doing the just and right thing this is what we need to do. When the world makes decisions that are guided by ill purpose don’t sign on. I know I won’t live up to this in the coming week, but if I come back to it from time to time maybe I will do better than I would have otherwise.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Memorial Day
Monday, May 28, 2012
Since Saturday at about 8 a.m. I have been mulching, mowing,
weeding, planting and doing the basics of summer gardening. When I was a kid I hated gardening. Hated may not be as strong a word as the
feeling I had really was. Now it is part of the rhythms of my life.
For years now I have planted tomatoes and basil. I have some other herbs out there like
rosemary and tarragon. I think I may
have planted a bell pepper. I have given
up on melons, at least the ones that grow in the ground. Of all the vegetables I think tomatoes are
the best. I have a variety of heirlooms
that I plant. I cannot tell you the joy I
feel eating real tomatoes and not the rubber balls colored red that fill the
supermarket shelves.
I did a couple of other odd jobs. I got the back yard fountain working. I had to disassemble the little pump motor
but I did get it clean. Now it is just gurgling
away. I can’t fix much. Still, being
able to take care of a little job feels quite good.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
We Need Them As Much As They Need Us
The sun is hanging long in the western sky these days. Longer daylight hours are a good thing. With the school year coming to an end our family is rushing from one child’s teenage event to another. Sometimes you wonder when it will ever end. But I know that day will come too soon.
As I dash from one meeting to another I sometimes learn something. During the prior evening sandwiched somewhere between a Vito sub at Jimmy John’s and picking up the Moose from Elevation Hockey, Taking Your Game to the Next Level training I learned some facts about the Autism Spectrum that surprised me.
In the space between other events last night I went to a meeting with a local autism awareness group. The speaker was talking about a program designed to deal with and develop social skill strategies needed to maintain normal ritualized contact. The nuances of the handshake, the greetings, the negotiations of where to go to lunch that invariably come in the workplace are things this group tries to provide guidance and experience with.
According to the speaker only about 12 % of the people on the spectrum maintain full time employment. He cited his statistic source but I didn’t write it down. Other statistics about abuse physical and financial were even more disheartening. In the conversation about employment the speaker indicated the issue for a person like my son who has Aspergers was not the ability to perform the work. ASD people apparently work very well at job tasks.
The problems come up for people on the spectrum in transportation to/from work (and movement around the facility) and with dealing with the required social contacts in the workplace. Neurotypical people don’t deal very well with the manifestations of ASD such as the lack of initiation of eye and other social contact. Conversations can die on the vine with persons on the spectrum. Having an interaction just peter out frustrates “normal” people and they become dissuaded from attempting further contact even on important and meaningful issues. This inability of the general population to be adaptive may become a major problem as time goes on because the spectrum population is growing.
According to the speaker 1 in every 54 boys in America is now falling somewhere on the spectrum. I have seen a statistic that in South Korea the rate is approaching 2.6 % of the juvenile population. To quote from the New York Times, “Among the children with autism spectrum disorder in regular schools, only 16 percent were intellectually disabled, more than two-thirds had a milder form of autism, and the ratio of boys to girls was unusually low: 2.5 to 1. In addition, 12 percent of these children had a superior I.Q. — a higher proportion than found in the general population.” Wallis, Study in Korea Puts Autism’s Prevalence at 2.6%, Surprising Experts May 9, 2011.
What we need are not just programs for persons on the spectrum teaching them how to pass themselves off as “ok” in a neurotypical world. We also need programs for employers and managers in all size level of companies on how to adapt to and accommodate ASD workers. We need training for staff in the workplace about respecting the differences that ASD persons have in how they approach social contact and work performance. Just looking at a business perspective I don’t think we can ignore 2% of our potential workforce if we want to stay competitive. Especially given that the level of higher IQ in this group is greater than in the general population. We will be throwing away/wasting a great deal of talent for innovation if we don’t come to terms with this growing group.
[I have used the term neurotypical a number of times here. I also know I have used it in prior posts. Just to be clear this is what the words current usage seems to mean and I am quoting Wikipedia, “Neurotypical (or NT) is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues.]
As I dash from one meeting to another I sometimes learn something. During the prior evening sandwiched somewhere between a Vito sub at Jimmy John’s and picking up the Moose from Elevation Hockey, Taking Your Game to the Next Level training I learned some facts about the Autism Spectrum that surprised me.
In the space between other events last night I went to a meeting with a local autism awareness group. The speaker was talking about a program designed to deal with and develop social skill strategies needed to maintain normal ritualized contact. The nuances of the handshake, the greetings, the negotiations of where to go to lunch that invariably come in the workplace are things this group tries to provide guidance and experience with.
According to the speaker only about 12 % of the people on the spectrum maintain full time employment. He cited his statistic source but I didn’t write it down. Other statistics about abuse physical and financial were even more disheartening. In the conversation about employment the speaker indicated the issue for a person like my son who has Aspergers was not the ability to perform the work. ASD people apparently work very well at job tasks.
The problems come up for people on the spectrum in transportation to/from work (and movement around the facility) and with dealing with the required social contacts in the workplace. Neurotypical people don’t deal very well with the manifestations of ASD such as the lack of initiation of eye and other social contact. Conversations can die on the vine with persons on the spectrum. Having an interaction just peter out frustrates “normal” people and they become dissuaded from attempting further contact even on important and meaningful issues. This inability of the general population to be adaptive may become a major problem as time goes on because the spectrum population is growing.
According to the speaker 1 in every 54 boys in America is now falling somewhere on the spectrum. I have seen a statistic that in South Korea the rate is approaching 2.6 % of the juvenile population. To quote from the New York Times, “Among the children with autism spectrum disorder in regular schools, only 16 percent were intellectually disabled, more than two-thirds had a milder form of autism, and the ratio of boys to girls was unusually low: 2.5 to 1. In addition, 12 percent of these children had a superior I.Q. — a higher proportion than found in the general population.” Wallis, Study in Korea Puts Autism’s Prevalence at 2.6%, Surprising Experts May 9, 2011.
What we need are not just programs for persons on the spectrum teaching them how to pass themselves off as “ok” in a neurotypical world. We also need programs for employers and managers in all size level of companies on how to adapt to and accommodate ASD workers. We need training for staff in the workplace about respecting the differences that ASD persons have in how they approach social contact and work performance. Just looking at a business perspective I don’t think we can ignore 2% of our potential workforce if we want to stay competitive. Especially given that the level of higher IQ in this group is greater than in the general population. We will be throwing away/wasting a great deal of talent for innovation if we don’t come to terms with this growing group.
[I have used the term neurotypical a number of times here. I also know I have used it in prior posts. Just to be clear this is what the words current usage seems to mean and I am quoting Wikipedia, “Neurotypical (or NT) is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues.]
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