So beloved daughter is now in a Masters program in Social Work. She wants to work with kids–and she’ll be great at it. She already has a lot of experience.
But graduate school has turned out to be such a disaster. Not that she’s doing badly in classes–she’s actually the top student in her cohort. No, it’s the old problem, that I really thought would be gone by now. Bullying.
Yes, you read that right. Graduate students training to be future social workers (helping vulnerable people, right?) are being horrible to her and some other students. They made fun of another student’s clothes. They blocked the one gay guy in the program from taking a seat. But they really, REALLY love tormenting my daughter, mostly because she’s a good student (and maybe because she’s autistic and doesn’t play their games).
She prepares for class in advance. And when she’s in class she asks questions. They don’t like that. They especially don’t like the questions–and guess why? Because if nobody asks questions, then they get out of class early.
That’s their goal–getting out of class early. The future social workers of America.
And so at the start of the semester yesterday she asked a question and most of the other people in the room laughed at her. It startled the professor. And it made her just that much more depressed.
that Bloody Cat 
I’m sorry to say that it never ends. I’ve done about 8 years of school at the graduate level now and every one of those years was marked with bullying and exclusion, all centered around my harmless autistic traits. It is miserable and it is a huge part of why I have spent that many years in grad school but don’t have a graduate degree.
And I’d guess most of those students (and professors! Shame on them!) who have bullied me would.be shocked to be called ableist because they probably don’t make the connection between what they didn’t like about me and autism.