Laura's Links, May 22, 2024
Fun and Serious Mixed Together into One Gloppy Mess
New Things Here
I have a new writing regime, because I’m trying to pump out a book about autism by the end of June. I have a strict 2,000-word per day quota. It’s going great so far — easiest thing that I’ve ever written. But words are words, and I can’t spread myself too thin.
On Monday, I’ll write an off-topic, random essay at the Apt. 11D newsletter. On Wednesdays, I will send out a newsletter with links/shiny objects/family pictures/food/whatevs, which will be cross posted at Apt. 11D and my autism newsletter, A Great Leap. On Fridays, I’ll post drafts of the book at A Great Leap.
I’m going on a social media diet until I finish a rough draft. I’m around on X, but not too much. If you’re a real life friend, please be patient with slow email and all that.
Sound groovy?
Disability Housing
A couple of years ago, when googling “schools for autistic kids,” I stumbled across Shrub Oak International school. It looked very expensive, like the type of places that Saudi princes dump their autistic kids, so I didn’t investigate too much.
Jennifer Shah Richards and Jodi B. Cohen investigated this school in a piece for ProPublica, “This School for Autistic Youth Can Cost $573,200 a Year. It Operates With Little Oversight, and Students Have Suffered”
I wish the article had addressed the bigger issue. Shrub Oak exists, because they are few places that will care for young people with severe autism, and parents are desperate. It also brings in rich people's kids from Dubai and Hong Kong where there are even fewer options. We clearly need to build better programs.
I also have to wonder if Shrub Oak is all that different from the average day program for autistic adults that IS approved by the state. A lot of those places are not great either.
I’ve written two pieces here about the problems with disability housing.
Government closed the institutions, but they didn’t put anything in their place.
Source: NYPL - Public Domain When Jennifer Senior’s aunt was two years old, doctors diagnosed her as a hopeless case, “a microcephalic idiot.” Adele’s brain was compressed by the bones of her skull due to a rare chromosomal irregularity. At that very young age, she was sent to the
Where We Put People
Looking back at his time at Willowbrook State School — the now closed institution for individuals with intellectual and developmental disorders on Staten Island — Marco Damiani told me that he’ll never forget the smell. “There was no smell like it. Those buildings had a unique odor. It was memorable,” Damiani said. “It hardened me.”
Teenage Wasteland
One of the problems that I have with the Wellness Movement is that it blames young people for their sadness. If they would just take deep breaths and listen gongs, then their lives will be rosy. No, sometimes things just suck. I have two depressing statistics for you today.
New York Times “In an age when participation in community organizations, clubsand religious groups has declined, and more social interaction is happening online instead of in person, some young people are reporting levels of loneliness that, in past decades, were typically associated with older adults.”
New York Times: “Fifty-two percent of college grads are underemployed a year after graduation, meaning they are working in jobs that don’t require the degrees they earned…”
Here’s my rant about wellness programs:
Let's Question Innovation
Photo by Julio Lopez on Unsplash Gooonnnnngggg. Gooonnnnggg. The teacher rang a gong at the School Board meeting, explaining to the committee and superintendent that she did this daily to reduce stress in her students and to practice mindfulness. She learned how to gong and practice other mindfulness techniques at a recent professional development confer…
Autism Stuff
New Yorker “So you’re on the spectrum, or you’ve got borderline personality disorder, or you’re a sociopath: once you’re sure that’s who you are, you’ve got a personal stake in a very creaky diagnostic system.”
UT Health "The results showed there was a significantly higher concentration of chemicals in the teeth of children with autism. Most of the chemicals found were phthalates, plasticizers, pesticides, antimicrobials, and solvents used to produce these compounds."
Life
Travel: Just bought tickets to Barcelona for August. We’ve been doing lots of little trips up to the Catskills lately. I’m running a local 5K on Memorial Day. We’re going up to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx and Arthur Avenue on Saturday. I’ll post more pictures on Instagram soon.
Watching: Black Sails (Check out this review, Steve.)
Reading: Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net Book review soon.
ICYMI - What I Wrote This Week:
Gen X in a Box
Just a few days after the purchase of my first house, my dad showed up unannounced, happily deposited seven boxes on our front porch, and then drove off with a wave. Since I didn’t get around to buying my first house until I was aged 38, he was mighty pleased to clear out their storage space for their own junk.
