I taught high school students with developmental disabilities from 1989 to 1995. During the summers, I would teach at another school that was also a part of district 75. These new students were under the “autism umbrella” although many had developmental disabilities as well. I found these students to be especially interesting to work with because many of them were “tuned in” to music in a very focussed way. All of them “processed” life events and information a bit diƯerently than the general population. One summer school day we had an assembly at the autistic unit. The performer that day was a hippyish folk singer with a guitar. He was about 40 years old. He knew all the “sing along” songs- songs like “Old McDonald” and “The Wheels on the Bus”. In these songs, the performer relies on kids in the audience to fill in the missing contextual word. For example, in “Old McDonald” he sings “And on his farm he had a…….” some kid might say “duck” or “cow” or “pig” or any animal that you might find on a typical farm.
. He looked like this, except he had a guitar. The song he was singing today for the autistic kids was about vocations. It was a song like this .
“ I wanna be a fireman, that’s what I will be I’ll wear my fireman hat for everyone to see I wanna be a fireman – that’s (stop) what I will be”
It sounded like this:
.
In the song, when he came to the C major “vamp” he turned to the kids and asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Unfortunately, nobody responded. Then he repeated his vamp and asked the question again . Another especially awkward silence followed. Then a well dressed young man with a pleasant face stood up. He “chimed in” with a mechanical voice, “TEEN AGE MU TANT NIN JA TUR TLE”- reciting each syllable with exactly the same emphasis.
The folk singer was flummoxed so he sang the song again. At the vamp, he asked exactly the same question. Another boy raises his hand and says very quietly, “MOMMY”
Clearly, things were moving in the wrong direction. Not only was “reality” being overlooked he was having to make a “side pass” over “gender”!
Not to be discouraged, he starts the song up yet again. A young man then blurts out, “ORANGE!” According to Wikipedia,
“Orange is the color between yellow and red on the spectrum of visible light. Human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometers.”
Even the most intrepid folksinger would have to admit that he had been detoured on to unfamiliar, nay unnavigable terrain. He stopped the song abruptly and went on to something else.
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