Monthly Archives: February 2016

Conventional Wisdom

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Random participants at the 2016 Katsucon Convention.

So my 15-year-old girl had a lot of fun this Saturday. Her dream came true when we pulled up to the Gaylord Hotel outside of Washington, DC, for her first anime convention. She had been preparing for this for months, figuring out who she should dress as and then fretting over every little detail of her cosplay costume.

Of course, she didn’t go alone. Dutiful dad that I am, I joined her. I had checked out the group’s website, and found the dress code, which included such rules as “At least one inch of fabric over the nipples” and “All play weaponry must be concealed when you are outside the convention center.” I also saw that there were a number of panel discussions, ranging from “How to Sew Your Own Plush” to the late-night, age-restricted “Introduction to Japanese Bondage Techniques”—complete with demonstrations. Well, okay, then!

Anyway, from the moment we entered the convention hall, we were surrounded by people of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors, and gender configurations. Almost all of them were dressed as their favorite character from anime or sci-fi or fantasy or just about anything else. There were Pokémon, elves, storm troopers, satyrs, Halo soldiers, flying monkeys, creepers, and Splatoon squids. And many, many others. More than 15,000 of them. I was one of the few who hadn’t dressed up—just jeans, sneakers, and a sweatshirt. I guess I could have said I was going as Awkward Suburban Dad, but I would have needed some identifying totem, like a DirecTV remote or a Black & Decker power tool to make the costume believable.

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My girl, the Splatoon Inkling.

I didn’t know what my girl would want to do there for six whole hours. None of the panel discussions interested her, and the exhibit hall wasn’t all that big. But it turns out I didn’t have to worry. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. Apart from a half-hour in the exhibit hall, we spent most of the time wandering around the convention center and the hotel’s public spaces. She was so very excited to see everyone’s costumes, and she took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Her wandering wasn’t calculated, but it didn’t matter. We went here, then there, then back here, then over there, then back again. All the while, she kept cooing about how happy she was to be there.

Work the Crowd.

Then she got an idea, which she picked up from observing some veteran cosplayers. She found a spot in an open area in the busy hotel lobby and just stood there waiting for people to come and take her picture. It was quite a sight: she in her very simple, decidedly amateur, costume, flanked by a portly Japanese princess on one side and a svelte, leather-clad female vampire on the other.

I stood about 25 feet away so that I could keep a watchful eye on her but give her some freedom. Over the next hour, hundreds of people walked past, most of whom didn’t pay her any attention. A few people stopped to take her picture, and a couple of folks talked with her for a bit—including one young man from France whose friendliness prompted me to hover more closely. But overall, I was happy. “This is so good!” I thought. “My little girl is getting out there; she’s spreading her wings, taking risks, and enjoying it.”

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Not too close to my daughter, Frenchie!

From there, we moved to a different location, where she stood for another 90 minutes. Only this time, she didn’t just stand there. She began waving her gun in front of her, occasionally “shooting” at some of the passersby. She looked like a slo-mo version of those people who stand on the street corner twirling an advertising sign. And that worked a lot better. Not only did she get many more requests for pictures, but she also got other characters to interact with her—the Halo soldiers, for instance, shot back at her.

So my girl had a good day. So good, in fact, that she’s already planning her outfit for a similar gathering in August. I think Katie’s going to take that one, though. Once a year is enough for me!

Taking It in Stride.

So what did I think of the whole thing? It was eye-opening. I spent my Saturday surrounded by people with a passion for a subject that was almost completely foreign to me. It took a little getting used to—seeing grown men and women dressed up so exotically and play-acting as cartoon characters.

Looking around at all the elaborate, ultrageeky costumes, I was brought back to my earlier years, when I would have dismissed this whole thing as just a bunch of maladjusted, self-indulgent nerds lost in a synthetic fantasy world. “Get a life!” I would have said under my breath. And I most certainly would not have allowed my children to get involved in such arcane doings. But then I went ahead and had actual, real life kids. Kids with autism. Kids with different brains and different neurologies than mine. And as a result I have learned to take a load of supposed weirdness in stride. So no, it wasn’t all that odd for me. In fact, after the initial adjustment, it felt completely normal.

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“Don’t mind us. We’re just sitting on the floor of this hotel lobby being fabulous.”

One of Us.

One brief scene from the day cemented this for me, and it’s an image that I suspect will stay with me for a long, long time. During our wanderings, I caught sight of one fellow who looked like he was in his early twenties. He stood out in part because he wasn’t dressed up as anything—just jeans and a tee shirt. He was on the up escalator, and he was holding a plush Pokémon. All the way up the escalator, he was nuzzling the thing, smiling broadly at it, and talking excitedly to it. He flapped his hands occasionally and bounced happily on the balls of his feet. He looked so happy, I couldn’t help but smile.

That’s when it hit me. This was not some poor unfortunate soul to be pitied. This was a happy, adjusted man enjoying a day out on the town. He looked healthy and well fed. He had clothes on his back and shoes on his feet. His hair was mussed up but not unkempt. He was in the midst of a huge crowd navigating a virtual rabbit warren of meeting rooms, lobby spaces, and exhibit halls, but he showed no signs of anxiety or disorientation. He was having the time of his life. I realized I was looking at him not as “one of those,” whatever “those” might mean. He wasn’t an “other.” He wasn’t even part of a different tribe. We were both part of the same tribe. But it wasn’t that he had joined my tribe and become “one of us.” Somehow, over the years of watching and learning from my kids, I had joined his tribe.

I was one of his.

A Breach of Trust at The Mount

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Take a look at this article from The Washington Post. It covers a controversy that has been roiling the campus of my alma mater, Mount St. Mary’s University, in Emmitsburg, MD, for the past few months. It seems that the newly-installed president initiated a survey for all freshmen to take early in their first semester. It was presented to the students as a way of helping them get to know themselves better as they transition from high school to college, and to help them understand better “the person you are and could become.” Fair enough. Everyone likes taking personality inventories and surveys like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It’s helpful to know what instruments like this tell you as you begin your academic career.

Only that’s not what the survey was really about. It was designed to help the university identify which students were at the greatest risk of dropping out so that administrators could encourage these students to leave early in the semester. And it was done in the hopes of boosting the school’s retention rate, thereby getting it better ratings in places like the US News ranking. The information in the survey was meant to be shared and discussed, not just scored and returned to the students for them discuss with their advisors.

Probing, Inappropriate Questions.

Now, the misrepresentation of the survey’s purpose is bad enough, but what’s worse is the fact that some of the questions are one-sided and not really related to its stated goal. Have you experienced a death in the family in the past year? Are you taking on major student loans? I don’t see how questions like these can help the students come to know themselves better.

But wait—it gets worse. An entire section of the survey is dedicated to the student’s mental health. They are asked how strongly they identify with statements like: In the past week . . . I felt depressed. I felt that people disliked me. I thought my life had been a failure. These are very personal questions, and the students should never be asked to divulge this kind of information—especially in a survey that is not kept confidential. They are also asked if they think they are calm and emotionally stable. Can they be trusted with money? Are they a hard worker? Have they been obsessed with a certain idea or project and then lost interest?

Then comes the final indignity. The closed-ended section of the survey ends with a question that comes out of the blue: Do you have a learning disability?

Seriously?

A Breach of Trust.

The best word I can find to describe the survey and its intended use is repugnant. Targeting for removal students who report feeling unstable is bad enough, but then expecting them to divulge whether they have a learning disability crosses several lines.

First, a student with a disability has the right not to disclose that disability to the school. At all. Ever. It is no one else’s business except the student’s—and anyone to whom he or she wishes to reveal it. It’s like Federal HIPAA guidelines; this information is protected by law.

Second, if a student does disclose a disability, the school is obligated to work with that student to determine the appropriate “academic adjustments” that will ensure that he or she is given an equal education opportunity. While not as stringent as the IEP process for elementary and high school students, the Americans with Disabilities Act lays out specific requirements for colleges—at least for those colleges, like Mount St. Mary’s, that accept government funding.

Finally, the school is obligated to keep this disclosure confidential. A teacher may not tell other teachers or students without the student’s permission. An advisor may not tell the president or dean. Again, it’s up to the student to decide who should know and to inform the appropriate people.

Elite Enclaves?

What is disturbing in this story is the implication that someone with a learning disability doesn’t belong in college. Or that someone struggling with anxiety or depression should drop out. It turns colleges—especially small, private ones like The Mount—into enclaves for the elite and privileged, for the well-adjusted and socially savvy.

But there are plenty of people with disabilities and disturbances who are more than capable of succeeding in higher education. What’s more, plenty of these people have the potential to go on and do great things with their lives—and great things for the people around them. Robin Williams comes to mind. So does Theodore Roosevelt. Or Charles Shulz. And, of course, Temple Grandin.

Not to mention, the presence of students who “deviate from the norm” is a great gift to any campus. Not to get too maudlin, but students like these challenge their peers’ assumptions and prejudices. They redefine the word “ability” for their teachers. They are a humanizing influence, opening people’s minds and hearts at a time in their lives when they are making crucial decisions about the kind of person they want to be.

I have children who would absolutely bomb on this survey, but who are earning As and Bs in high school. How would they fare? Or worse, what would they think of themselves when asked all of these questions? I hope they would have the common sense to either lie or leave them unanswered. I would be thrilled if they had the courage to challenge the whole thing and refuse to answer a single question. But I don’t know how they would respond. I can’t help but think of how questions like the ones above could convince someone that he or she really doesn’t belong . . . when it’s just not the case.

Praying for a Turn-Around.

I spent four wonderful years at The Mount. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and went on to earn a masters degree and pursue a meaningful, successful career in Catholic ministry and publishing. Much of that I owe to the education I received there and to the spirit of camaraderie and Christian charity I experienced there. But the first semester of my freshman year was hell. I was homesick and depressed. I felt overwhelmed by the work load. I started off in a dorm room with obnoxious, mean-spirited roommates. I didn’t know how to navigate the social mores of a college campus. It took me a while to adjust, to find my niche, and to settle in. Once I did adjust, however, there was no stopping me.

I would have failed that survey; I would have been encouraged to leave. But that didn’t happen. There were enough faculty and upperclassmen who knew how to help freshmen like me find their way. They embodied the best of The Mount—and the best of the Catholic faith. It saddens me deeply to see this happening at an institution that means so much to me. I can only pray that things will turn around soon.

The Story That Never Was

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This is a story about a story that never became a story. Got that? A story. About a story. That never became a story.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about an incident that happened in our house over the holidays. But because it was a story about a couple of the older kids, I didn’t hit the Publish button right away. My older kids are on Facebook now. They have virtual friends. They’re connected to some of their cousins. And the story I was telling could be interpreted in more than one way. I saw it as an illustration of some of the challenges that teenagers on the spectrum face—along with a hopeful, encouraging conclusion about how my kids are working through these challenges. But other people might focus only on the challenges and the difficulties, and they might get the wrong impression about my kids.

See, I know a thing or two about ASD. I get it in ways that many other people don’t. Sure, my story might help people understand autism a little better, but at what cost? The way my kids’ friends perceive them? The way my kids perceive themselves? Was I putting them out there in the wrong way? It didn’t seem so to me, but I wasn’t sure.

So I did something I had been thinking of doing for a few months. I told them that I occasionally post stories about being an ASD dad on social media. Then I e-mailed my story to them and asked if they’d be okay with my posting it.

They were and they weren’t.

One of them had an easygoing response. “Whatever raises awareness, Dad, I’m okay with. I know you’d never make me look bad. I don’t even have to read your story. Go ahead and publish it if you think it will help.”

The other one was not okay. “I don’t want people to think I’m a nervous, insecure, insane, freak!” That’s all I needed.

And so the story never became a story.

Careful . . .

It seems we’ve entered a new era. When I started this blog back in 2012, it was easy to tell stories because the kids were young and unconnected. Now I have to be more selective. But that’s okay. I’m sure there will be plenty of stories to tell that don’t run the risk of putting them in a bad light. Stories like this one about my boy’s success at singing in the chorus. Or this one about my daughter correcting one of her teachers. Or this one about the Catholic psychologist who wrote some really messed-up stuff about ASD and who I convinced to issue an apology.

Part of me will miss telling some of the harder stories—not because I want to embarrass my kids, of course. I’ll miss it because there’s this perception about ASD out there that it mostly affects little kids, and that’s just not true. There are plenty of stories about young children, who are so damned cute and whose parents are just beginning to come to grips with a new diagnosis.

But there’s another whole population of ASD folks out there. They’re older, and it’s not so cute when they do some of the quirky things that autistic kids do. When someone is five, he’s precocious; when he’s 15, he’s rude. She’s given much more leeway when she’s three because she’s expected to “outgrow” her autism; when she’s doing the same thing at 13, she’s stubborn, willful, or disturbed. Of course, none of this is accurate, but it’s how they are perceived.

So I’ll be more careful. I’ll look for the stories that emphasize how awesome my kids are. Or how far the autism community has come in gaining acceptance—and how much further it has to go. Or how much Katie and I are learning and growing as we raise our kids. Or God knows what else. Because our kids are still autistic. They will be even when they become adults. And the world needs to see that this very broad autism spectrum runs not just from low- to high-functioning, but from infancy to old age as well.

Now, would you believe me if I told you that my story-not-a-story was the best thing I had ever written? No? Well, you’ll never know, will you?