Sarah Boon

Something neurodivergent people talk about a lot is the impact school had on our lives, and for many of us it was far away from a good time. No doubt there are some neurodivergent people who had a positive experience in school. However, for many of us that was not the case! Although our experiences will naturally be varied, there do seem to be some common denominators. 

Unfortunately schools tend to be a very neuroconforming environment, and students who are seen as falling outside of what’s considered ‘normal’ by other students are more likely to be bullied. If neurodivergence means you socialise in a different way, this sadly can lead to incredibly high levels of bullying across a long period of time, it’s rarely a one off situation where somebody else is just being rude towards us. It can also lead to physical or psychological abuse. Many neurodivergent adults still suffer from trauma as a result of bullying from their school days. Not to mention, if we are different in other ways beyond our neurodivergence, this can also lead to increases and more significant bullying too. Contributing to further marginalisation within school.  

Often what most people assume is that teachers will put a stop to this as it’s part of their role. Reality is a lot more of a mixed picture, in some cases they might but often there may be an inconsistent response from schools and teachers when it comes to bullying. If schools and teachers aren’t fully understanding and accepting of neurodivergence, then common statements bullied neurodivergent children can hear include “they are bringing it onto themselves” because of any perceived differences, or are told “if only they tried a bit harder to fit in” and be completely dismissive of other students subjecting them to ableism. Sadly it doesn’t end there though, there are cases where school staff bully neurodivergent children themselves. It can be incredibly damaging when the adults in the school who are supposed to protect all children end up causing harm. 

For some neurodivergent children, the difficulties can also be present in other areas of school life. If we have learning differences and they are not accommodated in the classroom, then we can receive a very poor education or not reap the full benefits of the learning on offer. Also it doesn’t help that many schools still very much operate in a ‘one-size fits all’ way when it comes to learning, which will naturally always exclude certain groups of students. 

Consequently, we often get the message that we are ‘stupid’ or ‘slow’ without any support to discover what our strengths are if they exist outside of the narrow scope of school curriculums. I don’t think we can underestimate the potential impact these experiences have on our self-esteem, self-worth and how it can close certain doors for us before we have the chance to figure out which is the right path for us to take. When schools also put a significant amount of pressure to perform academically too, it can feel like we’re drowning especially if going down the academic route isn’t right for us. For neurodivergent students who want to pursue academics, there’s typically immense pressure and not the right support in place, meaning we can miss out on our potential being recognised and not thriving in areas we otherwise would be if those barriers didn’t exist.  

Not to mention, if we have mental health struggles as part of our neurodivergence and are still attending school, not having the right support and understanding in place can certainly amplify the issues mentioned above. I think back to the times in school where I was having more mental health struggles and it certainly impacted on my ability to learn and feel safe enough to truly benefit from anything in school. Then again, my first mental health struggles came about from the ableism I experienced in school, so it became a vicious cycle for myself by continuing to attend school. 

As a result of some or all of these things, many neurodivergent students are no longer able to attend school, they often are unsafe environments for us with limited ability to understand and support neurodivergence. Here in the UK, the government is only making this issue worse by coming down hard on children and their families if they are unable to attend school, and rarely doing anything with addressing the root cause of why neurodivergent children frequently suffer in schools. 

This is only a brief summary of what is going on, but as a whole school really does suck for many neurodivergent students. 

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