Ugh…

This term has been really bad for classes. I’m doing well in them, but two of my classes have this autistic guy in it who loves to pose mathematical problems to the professor. He also likes to propose new methods of doing math. The kid may be a genius. He may not be. Frankly, I don’t care. He is delaying the education that I paid for and disrupting the learning environment for everyone else. And I think that is disrespectful.

In another class, it is an even stickier situation. A guy with Tourettes, who has uncontrollable “honking” vocalization. This kid belts out his vocal ticks at something like 120 dB. We wrote our final test today in class, and - unfortunately - he came in late and took the formerly empty seat right beside me. Before the test, I was set. I was golden. I was prepped and ready to dominate that thing. But when he started howling in my ear, I had to write the whole test curled up in a ball to cover my paper and my ears while still maintaining the freedom of movement to write.

Let me ask you folks: Given that his Tourette’s makes him a very powerful distraction to others, do you think he should have written the test in a different room?