Last updated on November 26, 2023
Classroom spaces, physical and virtual, present numerous barriers to academic achievement for disabled students. Compound these spaces with ableist teaching practices and it is little wonder schooling traumatizes many students.
“Today’s classrooms better meet the social and academic needs of students,” I’ve heard experts proclaim.
Really? Which students? Surely not the Neurodiverse, the introverts, or anyone not fitting the archetypical student template. If you don’t fit the norms, classrooms are not designed for you and nor are the teaching practices employed in those spaces.
My autistic traits were often triggered by classrooms. Fortunately (or not), I can repress my autistic nature. This “masking” contributes to autistic burnout, but that’s not something the educational system considers. Bluntly, the overload many students experience is something most teachers don’t consider.
Teacher preparation programs encourage practices that conflict with Neurodiverse needs. New teachers absorb the “truths” taught to them as pedagogical best practices. Teachers are trained to create visually stimulating spaces. They are taught that traits associated with extroversion are desirable. Group spaces are encouraged.
Dizzying Physical (and Online) Spaces
When did we decide every child (and young adult) needed a “visually stimulating” classroom? A few posters, maybe, but as a student, parent, researcher, and consultant I’ve seen too many rooms that look like one of those spinning paint projects. Colors everywhere. Items on the walls and hanging from the ceilings. Posters, calendars, art projects, and more cover every inch of wall space.
Some colors bother me. A whirlwind of colors is outright painful. At least try to do something coordinated with the colors and images.
And then there are the desks. Arranging desks as large tables in the middle of the room looks like a call center. At least some rooms use actual tables. Massive tables, without much space for navigating. I was told by an education professor that they sought to model “cutting-edge workplaces that emphasize roaming and collaborating.” Because surely the “open floor plan” workspace is good, right? If nothing else comes out of the pandemic years, I hope it is the death of open floor plan spaces.
Science labs should have tables, nicely spaced for the instructor and students to safely move instruments and supplies. Computer labs organized in a “horseshoe” pattern work well for helping and monitoring students.
But please don’t create massive islands in the room. Students move their chairs back and block the paths. I’ve had students at opposite tables shove back, blocking my path forward. No. Don’t use these arrangements.
I visited a room in which learning centers were across from each other, so at every change students had to cross the room. Why not move in a clockwise (or counterclockwise) direction from center to center? “I want students to encounter each other and share their excitement.” Students were moving chairs, banking into each other, racing from corner to corner. There’s no defense for this arrangement.
Design spaces with educational goals in mind, yes, but don’t make them endurance tests.
Acting Like a Good Student
Acting normal is a form of “masking,” and it is associated with autistic burnout.
The performative nature of being a “good student” annoys the heck out of me. As long as you look like you’re being a good student, you must be learning.
In 2019, I attended a summer “boot camp” for educators. One of the presentations included posters featuring the rules for active listening, known by the mnemonic SLANT. These posters tell students to Sit up; Lean forward; Ask and Answer Questions; Nod and Smile; and Track Speakers with Eyes and Ears. My daughters and I would surely be penalized in a classroom enforcing the SLANT rules. I was called out during the boot camp because I didn’t follow the rules.
Sitting normally is not a Neurodiverse norm. Leaning towards a speaker? No thank you. I’m certainly not going to interact just for show, either. Will there be cues to indicate when we should nod and smile, light the applause sign for a studio audience? Seriously, this SLANT thing is so phony it makes me angry as I write this.
Some days, when I take notes while listening I lose track of the speaker. Yet, I had instructors demand that students take notes and then turn in the notes. Mine were always marked down because I write so slowly by hand. I can type quickly, on good days. And then there are the days when even typing proves impossible.
I also had an instructor who demanded we highlight important passages in book chapters. I hate, hate, hate destroying a book with highlighting. Let me use Post-It flags, at least. Do not ask me to damage something I care about as deeply as books. Some Neurodiverse students struggle when asked to identify the “most important passages” in a text. They highlight everything. That’s not useful, either.
Learning to tell white lies caused me significant stress as a student. Polite but empty phrases and gestures expected of good students exhaust me.
Collaboration Indoctrination
Collaborative groups? Please, no. Stop it. No more fake group work.
The primary reason I objected to independent study in school is that it wasn’t my choice. I’m rebellious like that. Don’t tell me I should work alone since I’m ahead of my classmates. I’ve even had instructors tell me I was ahead of what they planned to teach — and in one case, I was ahead of what the instructor knew. At least she was honest.
Yet, given a choice, I probably would opt to learn on my own, in a corner, without having to slow down for everyone else in the class. Let me go at my speed, not some slow, plodding pace set by an artificial calendar or the slower students.
In a group, I’m one of those students who will do the work so I don’t get a low grade. I don’t trust other students to work hard. Each additional group project only reinforced my bias against collaboration at school. I’m sorry, but school isn’t work… and the collaborative methods are not equivalent. Even at the university level, group projects were a punishment for the grade-obsessed students.
I “collaborate” professionally. It’s not the same. I do my job, and that job is part of a managed project. Stop playing workplace at school.
Advocating for Change
As a parent of Neurodiverse daughters, I have seen them struggle as I did in classrooms. It saddens me to realize that classrooms have become less inviting spaces for some students, not more accommodating and inclusive. Yes, I believe today’s classroom spaces are worse for autistics, students with ADHD, and other Neurodiverse learners. The cult of the extrovert has ruined learning spaces for some of us.
No wonder the girls want to continue learning at home.