One of Us
A few weeks ago, I read a story with my language arts class called, "Flowers For Algernon," The story is about a 39 year old man named Charlie Gordon who has mental issues, for his mind is at the level of a child at the age of 6 or 7. He has trouble spelling, and writing and reading. The character has a simple job of taking out the trash at a factory, but the people whom he works with are very mean to him. Charlie thinks that they like him, for he cannot understand that they are making fun of him.
This subject in my language arts class became a big one, "Is it okay to make fun of someone who has special needs?" Now, for me, this subject really hit home. I found myself angry with the other characters and feeling so horrible for Charlie. The reason this subject bothered and got to me so much with is, my twin brother, Johnny, is on the autism spectrum. Speaking and socializing is very hard for my brother, so he wouldn't understand if someone was making fun of him.
My hand was one of the first to shoot up. Some people in my class have known I had an autistic twin, and others didn't even know I had a brother. I explained to people how far it is from okay to make fun of people even if they don't understand. The class agreed with me, and my teacher must've remembered everything I said that day.
Today I walked into my math class, like any regular day I would've, I went through the class, and since I have math 8th period and it was a half day, right after, I would have to go home to get my brother from his school bus and stay home to watch him until my mom arrives. Anyways, I began to walk out of the class, and my teacher looked at me and said my name. She asked me where I was going and what i was doing after school. I said that i had to go home to get my brother's bus. She nodded and asked if I had a minute to talk. I nodded. Honestly, I thought she wanted to talk to me because I failed the last math test at first. It wasn't.
My math teacher grew up with a brother who was mentally retarted, that's what she had said, and I don't remember the real name she mentioned for the disorder. She told me how my language arts teacher had told her about my twin, and how she knew how I felt. I told her about when people make fun of other people who have problems, I can't take it. And It's happened before. I've flipped out on people who have been mean to one of the kids in my grade who have autism, asperger's, or any other special need. After i told her that she hugged me... she knew exactly how i felt..
I've never met someone who had an autistic sibling unless their sibling went to a group-type thing and I met them there. (my brother goes to a group, and I sometimes am a mentor to other children there.) I think my math teacher is the last person I would've ever thought to have anything in common with. Well... today I learned she's one of us.