It’s sad. No one dies or anything- it’s not at all violent. Just sad.
It’s one person’s story of living life without solid social skills.
Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke showed this at their Social Thinking conference yesterday. Let me tell you- the whole place was in tears, and the optimistic energy that had been in the room only moments before was gone. Just gone.
Anyone who knows me or my work knows that I think the world of Michelle and her work. But man, I kind of had a beef with her showing this to a packed room- half filled with parents of kids with social challenges.
My problem is this- the video just ends. There is no call to action, no hope, no plan. That bugs me.
I think there IS hope. There is hope through teaching- which is what Social Thinking is all about.
But the is also hope in GATHERING kids who struggle.
Young people with social challenges do not need to be isolated. Gather them based on their interests and talents.
- Start an anime club.
- Build a robotics team
- Initiate a science club
- Provide a place for book clubs, chess clubs, movie nights, pizza parties, ANYTHING.
There are young people with social struggles everywhere. There is simply not a reason for them to go it alone.
Social struggles suck, no doubt. There is no magic solution, no cure, and no quick fix. But social struggles do not automatically mean “miserable life.”
I believe in an alternate ending to this film. Do you?
