loveloveBecause I am a person who prepares special ed teachers and doc students for a living, I meet a lot of people, and a lot of them are parents of kids, and a lot of the kids these parents have are kids with autism.  I get to know them over time, and see the wonderful work they do as pre-service teachers, and often keep in touch with what they are doing after they graduate.  These are good and loving people, dedicated to life-long learning.  This is my general background knowledge of other people’s parents.  This is hundreds or maybe by now a thousand-odd of people, not just a loud handful.
Cut to my experience at Hirsch, which really drove this home so much it brought tears to my eyes.  Shelley Carnes and Leslie Smith there who run the homey, inviting little school brought me, Landon Bryce and Brenda Rothman to come and speak for the inaugural session of their “Our Voices” series, which they put on in the city of Atlanta and opened to the public for all who are interested in Autistic and allied viewpoints.