It Isn't Rocket Science

It is 10:00 on a Friday night and I am writing.  That fact alone tells the story of my social life.  It is non-existent.  I met up with an old friend the other day and we hung out at a coffee shop and went to a movie.  It was of the opposite sex and we had plans to meet later in the week.  He called me and I said, "Hey look, I am so sorry but the school meeting didn't go well.  I can't drag you into this mess and you don't deserve to hang out with someone who is not happy."  He said, "Thanks" and that was that.

The Committee on Special Education meeting did not go well this week.  I have to laugh because I later sat and I cried and put all my thoughts on facebook which is really the social thing to do (I say kiddingly).  There is something I must clear up.  How I talk on facebook is not how I talk in meetings.  My social expression is my thoughts on how I really feel.  I act accordingly in  meetings with the laughter and the kidding around and all the stuff that makes me literally physically ill when it is finished.

My district is a very large district and there is no possible way that they can know each kid individually or can they?  Isn't that what the Committee on Special  Education is all about?  Isn't it a group effort to oversee a program that works?  I get that it is all about money.  I also get that it is about the big wig who is breathing down the Chair's neck.  I have visions of our Chair sitting in a meeting with their stats on who is placed and who isn't with the side remark, "So how is it going with Mr. Sam Maloney?" With the response, "We have a very involved parent who is making it difficult to place him."  I don't really know but I can say that the Chair looks really stressed in our meetings and I always tell him that they couldn't pay me a million dollars to do his job.

My thoughts drift to rocket science.  I was curious to know of the origin of the expression, "Well, it isn't rocket science" and this is what I found. It is an idiom that means. "This isn't all that advanced or hard to understand."  I also found this, "Rocket technology is thousands of years old.  It is Sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal powder in a tube, which you light and retire.  A few tests and a little trigonometry will tell you where it will land.  A little calculus and some data on thrust and combustion rates and you can work out the acceleration and the trajectory and everything."

I am wondering if anyone knows where I am going with this?  It makes me chuckle because what I want to scream at these meetings is, "You have all of these tests.  You have all of this information and you still don't understand my child!"  I want to yell at the top of my lungs, "This isn't rocket science!"  Or is it?

Us parents know that our children with Autism come from a different operating system.  All the neurotypical workers out there, except for the ones with children diagnosed with Autism, don't live this life.  How many times have they been trained to watch the videos and read the books that are so thoughtfully produced by so many talented individuals who live this life as a Mac and not a PC.  How can you understand something if you don't live it?  How do these people come up with any answers to the questions of "What will work for this child."  More importantly, "What have we tried again and again that isn't working."  It isn't rocket science to know that if it doesn't work come up with a better equation for better outcomes.

Rocket technology is trigonometry and calculus.  I don't understand math but I do understand the concept of calculations.  You feed in the information to get the answer.  Isn't that what Behavior Specialists do?  What I got was a piece of paper slid across the table telling me how many behaviors he had.  I looked at the piece of paper and said, "What day, time and subjects did these behavior occur?  I was met with, "We don't know."  "You don't know!" is screaming in my head.  The next meeting they slid me the same sheet of paper with the same kind of skeleton information and I slid it back saying, "This is meaningless."  I also told them I was pulling Sam because of the abuse that he had endured while he was in their care.  Yes, I can be a little you know what.  And yes, I did enjoy the look of shock that clearly showed on their faces.

Rocket Technology is also about "a few tests with these calculations to tell you where the rocket will land."  All of these tests that we give our kids are given so we can get them to land on their feet when they are 21 to lead productive lives.  The tests can include IQ, Auditory processing, Sensory Integration Evaluations, to name a few.  Sam's tests were ignored and now they are outdated.  They were not looked at and Sam is floating out in space at the moment with no place to land.

So in conclusion, I guess figuring out our kids, for the professionals is rocket science.  I guess calculating our kids needs is an arcane science which by definition is, "an adjective known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric.  This is a shame.  Maybe the professionals should listen more to us parents.  To us, figuring out our kids is not, for the purpose of this discussion, rocket science.

Definition of Mental

1. a: of, relating to, or being intellectual as contrasted with overt physical activity.

2. a: of, relating to, or affected by a psychiatric disorder <mental patient>.

b: mentally disordered, mad, crazy.

I choose being an intellectual as my definition of being mental.

*The photo that I use for my background was taken by Sam.