Dear Daughter,
Recently your school had an Autism Awareness Day and asked all the kids to wear blue. Of course you did. I think awareness days are important and autism awareness in a school is especially important as it helps students to understand each other a little better… or it’s supposed to.
Autism Awareness Day could have been a pretty good teaching opportunity at the school, so I was surprised when you came home still not even knowing what autism was or even really why you wore blue. It’s disappointing that the school looked at the day as a photo op, but not a learning opportunity. We did have a bit of a talk after school about Autism, so you did learn something about it that day.
I think showing support for things you believe in or want to support is good. I have a Darwin t-shirt and am thinking of buying one of those Teach The Controversy shirts with Russell’s tea pot on it. One of my work uniforms has pink ribbons on it, another has AIDS awareness ribbons, and I wear a poppy every November 11th.
Showing support is good, but getting taken in isn’t. Owning stuff with ribbons on it to support whatever campaign you want to support is good, but spending a lot of money on items that have that particular ribbon on it is often not worth it. Buy a few items to proudly declare your support, and then write a check or donate time to a real organization that is actually doing something for the cause.
What I want you to know about Awareness Days is that it’s good to let others know the causes you believe in and the things you support, but don’t get too caught up in the hype. Remember that these are learning opportunities.
whatiwantyou2know 