Aspen Besotted

(Click twice. Oh, the sparkle... it's hard to capture though.)

We just got back from a whirlwind 24 hours of visiting the fall colors in the mountains. The Aspens bursting into gold was so enchanting! I'm besotted.

College kid! Hooray!

We've got week one of college down! Right now, Cameron is insecure about all the challenges of coordinating five class, but he's tackling it with his usual rhino-charge intensity. He especially likes his chemistry teacher who focuses on teaching tools and not memorizing minutia. I've done tons of prep-work with the special-ed office and... so far, so good! It seems like he's being perceived as a dedicated student and that's great! We'll see how things go when the first tests come, but he's started off with intensity and success.

I'm adding my "notes to teachers" that I created so all his college teachers had some context. With his permission, I'm also including the intro that Cameron just wrote for his English class. It's a great picture of where my awesome child is at right now.

Notes to Teachers

Cameron M.

Student ID: S XXXXXXXX

Key passage from his IEP:

“Cameron is typical for a student that has both Asperger’s and High Functioning Autism diagnoses. He is socially and emotionally young and makes social errors that his typical peers do not, but younger children do. He is highly sensory seeking and doesn’t realize how intense his constant self-movement can come across. He is usually cautious and quiet as much as possible in new situations and it takes a huge toll on him. He comes home exhausted. He tries to engage with others and then pretends he’s not not interested whenever he doesn’t succeed. It’s like he’s half exuberant puppy and half cynical teen and that’s a hard combo to make suave!”

Notes for teachers:

• Keeping in mind that Cameron is socially young will help with positively processing a comment like “That doesn’t make sense. The thing works this way.” If you picture this as a ten-year-old looking up, the response tends to be feeling engaged and helpful. But, with a student that is 5’ 9” and has a deep voice, the same question can unintentionally come across as rude or defiant. He is working on questioning politely and using expressions like, “I don’t understand.”
• As is typical with Autistic students, he often sees things as black and white. It is hard for him to take the perspective that two answers can be equally right. If this occurs in discussion situations, he is not trying to be defiant; he actually doesn’t understand how it’s possible. He is also growing in his perspective taking skills. If he does get stuck on one perspective being correct in a class, he has consistently been fine with teachers just acknowledging that that is his point of view.
• As a teen who has so often stood out, he is reluctant to ask for help when he doesn’t understand. At the same time, he has an advanced vocabulary and can come across as deliberately provocative when asking questions (even when adults are forewarned), because it seems hard to imagine that his social awareness / intent is not at the same maturity level as his verbal skills. 
• Please contact Rachel Miner early with any questions or concerns. With parent facilitation of understanding between student and teacher, Cameron has consistently been a straight A student. His tests indicate he is fully academically ready to be a student at CCA. However, he is socially/emotionally young and may need some understanding and accommodations to succeed as he begins his college career. (email:  phone: )

Cameron M. Introductory Discussion

Cameron M. posted Aug 28, 2018 12:12 PM

Subscribed

My name is Cameron M. I live in Parker Colorado. I am 14 and doing high school at the same time as this. Clearly this is a major shortcut and a big difficulty spike as I went from the very forgiving junior high which didn't take overly much time and was relatively easy to 4 community college classes and a PE class. At least I don't have a job or children to take up more time. My current academic idea is to go into some form of engineering, although I don't currently know which one.

As for my identity groups the first is my atheism. I am actually one of the few that was raised that way although my parents weren't so. This means a lot to me because it means that I have no need to (in my view) spend years worth of time (over the course of a life) speaking to the air in hope that in doing such I shall be better off after death. It also allows me to confront my own mortality and generally think more logically.

As for my second identity group I am male. This makes me more competitive in physical matters and provides me with a strong incentive to be reasonably fit. It also makes me also makes me strongly detest the modern feminist movement as I perceive it to be an attempt to be sexist against men and to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of making women victims, equal to men, and worthy of preferential treatment at the same time. I want to clarify that this opinion doesn't apply to the versions of feminism from the late 18th century to the 1960's as in those times women actually had it worse off then men and campaigning for true equality has always been a worthy cause.

My third identity group is that I have autism however this doesn't seriously impair me just makes my brain work differently. However this made me deliberately be a royal jerk for most of elementary school and generally while I was younger. Since I did this all my elementary school teachers and especially students will see me like a jerk for their entire lives. This does give me benefits though. The major ones I know of is that the national park service seems to think that having autism makes me entitled to visit their parks for free even though it isn't an impairment in my case and that some scientists thought that studying my brain was worth giving me a few hundred bucks which greatly increases the piggy bank of a kid without substantial pay or payments.

The fourth identity group(which is more of a subculture) is that I am an avid reader of fantasy novels and enjoy discussing various in book issues. This makes me enjoy reading more than most and consider it an enhancing pursuit. It also makes me better at reading in general making a reading assignment ideal for me. This pursuit also gives me essay ideas and supports my debate skills.

The fifth and finial identity group(which is more of an age group) is that I am a teenager. This causes me to eat a lot be argumentative and entails a surliness that is unique to this age group. It also means that I don't have the freedoms of an adult but must work extremely hard to gain those skills while gradually gaining more and more autonomy until I can function independently.  I must also deal with my body changing and find what works in order to maintain me while always being ready for change. 

This has been my introductory discussion please reply for an interesting conversation and to provide constructive feedback and questions which I will answer.