Barb

Prior to going to Barb’s presentation, I watched Barb’s video on YouTube. I thought she offered some very useful tips for teachers (students with Autism need companionship too) and some of them are what we read and discussed about in special education. I was also very impressive with how well-read Barb is in areas of history, religion, and philosophy.

During Barb’s presentation, we were shown another video in which Barb’s friends took turns reading her writings. Barb writes about how she had begun to make friends in her mid-30s after careful evaluation of her friends’ intentions. I was really moved by how sincere Barb is and how much she values friendship. Barb also notes the difference between being friendly and beings friends. This is true as people often befriend people they can relate to and are similar to. When someone is different than they are and they cannot easily understand, people tend to stay distant and friendly. That friendliness, unfortunately, then becomes the barrier. Barb also talks about distinguishing pity from true friendship. I know from experience how undesirable being pitied can be and I often just build up the barrier of friendliness myself whenever I feel someone is being nice to me because of pity. I think these are all good things to keep in mind when working with all kinds of people—not just students with Autism.

After Barb’s presentation, I went online and read more of Barb’s writings on her web site. I stumbled across the piece “Autistic Sex: For a Terrible Time, Call”. I found myself to be really enjoying Barb’s sense of humor, her writing style, and how bold and sincere she is as a writer. As humans, we all have our primal needs. But most of the time, our society favors denial and suppression when it comes to sex even though we all know it’s a legitimate concern for everyone. I thought it was really bold and refreshing that Barb wrote about this. I can never be that bold, but I thought the least I could do is share how much I loved Barb’s writing.