Have Boys an Open, Loving Personality? Have Girls?

by Sean Crudden Tue Sep 07, 2004 08:58

"To be or not to be, that is the question:-
Whether `tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune:
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? - To die, - to sleep,
No more:- and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, - `t is a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, - to sleep:-
To sleep! Perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect,
That makes calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressors wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear
To grunt and sweat under a weary life
But that the dread of something after death, -
The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, - puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia. - Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d."

When I was writing the article at the head of this thread I quoted Shakespeare (inaccurately) from memory. Ironically if you look at the full text of Hamlet’s soliloquy you will see that I was, in a way, "medicalising" Shakespeare’s famous words.

by Order of St Martin Sun Sep 05, 2004 00:43

Self harm is often a sign of autism in children. Dyslexia, ADHD and other learning disabilities fall within the Autistic spectrum.

Excluding external environmental trauma, an undiganosed autistic/ADHD/dyslexic child placed within a normal school environment will have great difficulty coping socially within a normal classroom setting, nevermind having to learn at the same time as adjusting to the school environment. Many self harm as a release from the educational and social pressure they are placed under when having to perform in a competitive educational environment. without the appropriate educational support and recognition of their learning disabilities.

Many of these children are dismissed as troublesome educational failures, because our educational system cannot financially afford to recognise their learning disabilities and alter,incorporate or provide educational resources within mainstream education to support these children's educational progress.

It is widely assumed that children with special needs are socially maladjusted, stupid, lazy, slow and backward.

Many dyslexic children are in fact very clever, and use highly tuned cognitive senses to compensate for specific spelling, reading and writing difficulties.

Well to do, competitive parents of high achieving normal children with no disability, wrongly and ignorantly assume that adjusting educational resources to be inclusive and cater for the needs of high ability children with learning disabilities, will somehow hold back the educational progress of their normal high achieving offspring.

What hope have children with learning disabilities got to go on to suceed, be happy and confident when they are failed in their formative years by an uncaring ignorant, non inclusive and backward educational system.