Today’s episode explores the challenges faced by gestalt language processors (GLPs) and non-conforming educators within an educational system that prioritises “normative” benchmarks and analytic processing. The author of the source article, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, outlines “The Autistic Heroine’s Journey,” a framework illustrating how individuals are pressured to mask their authentic language and pedagogical instincts, leading to burnout and a “refusal of the self.” The essay critiques the so-called “Science of Reading” as a commercially driven slogan that marginalises GLPs, advocating instead for a “new ordinary” where literacy is seen as plural and self-knowing becomes an act of survival. Dr. Hoerricks ultimately argues against seeking a singular solution, instead emphasising the importance of dismantling systemic structures that define difference as deficit, drawing on critical theory and global perspectives to inform this resistance.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/if-i-could-change-one-thing-the-autistic

Let me know what you think.

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