Library / Watch / Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
Argument, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
A Sydney panel named the classroom rules that count stillness as learning
In short
The education panel at the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney began with the rules of an ordinary classroom, and ended by arguing the system that sets them has to change.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
The first answer on the education panel at the Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney, in June 2024, went straight to rules most people would recognise from their own schooling. When Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, asked what neuroaffirming practice in education really meant, a panellist said that, very basically, it meant accepting everyone as they turned up, looking at individuals, and holding nobody to a neuronormative standard or expectation.
The panellist then set out what that standard contains. Students are expected to sit quietly with their feet still, to keep their focus on the teacher with eye contact, and never to get so excited that they speak out of turn. Among the expectations is “the standard that you should be able to sit there for 60 minutes without moving”. Each of these, the panellist said, is applied to a classroom that may hold students who cannot sit still and need to move to learn, and students who need active learning and doodle through the whole lesson. Many teachers, the panellist said, read a doodling student as a student who is not paying attention. For a lot of children, moving their hands is the only way they can hear and engage.
Sign in to keep reading, listening and watching.
Sign in with your email and everything in the Library is open to you: every story, every talk and every episode. It is free and it always will be. If you can, a donation helps keep it free for everyone.
Sources the story draws on
- Average class size, 2025 (opens in a new tab), NSW Department of Education (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation)
- The Teacher Education Expert Panel (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Education
- Priority Area 2, Action 8: 'Strong Beginnings' report released by expert panel (opens in a new tab), Australian Government Department of Education
- Addendum to the Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Standards and Procedures (opens in a new tab), Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
More from Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
All 94- 2 minutes 8 seconds, captioned Why three extra weeks fail autistic students who do not understand the question Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024 A panellist on the Sydney education panel argued in 2024 that university adjustments are offered from a fixed list, and proposed that autistic people check assessment questions before students ever see them.
- 4 minutes 13 seconds, captioned Autistic university students said they were left to educate their own lecturers Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024 Research reported at the 2024 Sydney education panel found stigma, discrimination and outdated knowledge among university staff. The proposed next study would question the staff instead of the students.
- 2 minutes 56 seconds, captioned Dr Siobhan Lamb wanted classrooms where no student needed an accommodation Dr Siobhan Lamb At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney, a panellist working in secondary education called neurodivergent students the canaries in the coal mine. A participant who works at Headspace warned that one design rarely fits every young person.
- 1 minute 55 seconds, captioned Schools need openly neurodivergent teachers students can look up to, Sydney panel said Sandra Thom-Jones Panellists at the 2024 Sydney education session argued for visible neurodivergent staff and autistic experts in schools, and described three local examples of schools starting to make that change.
- 2 minutes 6 seconds, captioned Letting autistic students leave an overwhelming room would cost schools nothing, panel heard Marion Rabuka, Sandra Thom-Jones At the 2024 Sydney education panel, Marion Rabuka named the sensory barriers in classrooms and Sandra Thom-Jones argued the cheapest fix was giving students the autonomy to walk out.
- 1 minute 17 seconds, captioned A father used ChatGPT to show his autistic daughter how a speech is built Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024 At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium in Sydney, a teacher and a parent described students using AI for the structure of their work while doing the writing themselves.