Neurodivergent dad, CEO of Meta Corporation
by Ryk GroetchenNeurodivergent dad of neurodivergent childrenFacilitator of musical experiences for families with young children Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, I have been a user of your platform since soon after it was released to the public in the mid-2000s. I’m older than you: you were born the year I should have graduated from high school. As…
Navigating changing conditions in the nurturing professions
Vocational awe: “the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique.” “graduates overwhelmingly pointed to underemployment issues as a source of unhappiness, including low wages; lack of benefits; having to settle for part-time,…
I’ve read things literally my whole life. Hold up. Let me rephrase that. Actually, let me point out how that is a perfect opening statement for this piece I’m trying to write about life as a literalist. Everything is wrong with this sentence, if I pick it apart. Not literally everything, though the case could…
Who is Jane Doe, and how do we provide her with justice?
The reason an institution like Cornell chooses to handle a case like Jane Doe vs the Cornell 7 internally has nothing to do with fairness, or protecting boys’ reputations, or even protecting the reputation of the institution. The reason is that institutions like Cornell are specifically designed to manufacture injustice, while obscuring that motive from…
How do we talk about repair, and who’s capable, in 500 characters?
“All autistic people can learn to be accountable for their actions, and to say otherwise is infantalizing and ableist.” Many variations on this theme are making their way through the platforms currently. While on the surface it appears well-meaning and affirming, it’s worth stepping back and considering the claim at face value, and how it…
What an ASD diagnosis actually buys you, depending on where you live, and your tax bracket
A diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder is often talked about as an endpoint — the thing a family or an adult has been chasing through waitlists and evaluations, the moment the puzzle finally has a name. But the diagnosis itself is an arbitrary designation. It’s useful for understanding needs. Whether it opens access to accommodation,…
continue reading Autistic Traits Are A Spectrum of Needs: Who Gets To Access Care?
Population as Organism: Epigenetics, Neurodiversity, and the Problem of the Individual
The Western neuroscience community has recently taken to saying that autism is genetic — a corrective, and a welcome one, to public claims, made from positions of real institutional power, that environmental exposure is the primary driver of rising diagnosis rates. The rebuttal leans on heritability: family studies put the heritable component of autism around…
continue reading So Autism is Genetic: What Does That Settle?
the etymology of the term ‘autism’ derives from an idea that a person with autistic traits is somehow isolated in a world of their own, that others can’t reach. i would offer that this is exactly wrong, and a projection by an observer with a mindset built from a variety of assumptions that prevents them…
The adaptation-to-pathology pipeline, pt 1
This series explores human traits and behaviors that are pathologized in the modern Western office-industrial complex, with the intent to spark cross-cultural discussion, and reassessment of what it means to be divergent. Two gait strategies, same anatomy, different verdicts—depending on what the ground is asking of the foot, and who’s asking the questions. Toe-walking—prioritizing the…
Many traditional cultures around the world—what I would call emplaced cultures—have sustained populations for millennia, within different watersheds, meeting different needs with different answers. Care distributed through community and across generations, calibrated to the place the community inhabits. Western medicine arrives with its own language—what is right and observable in every case across place and…