“This I Believe” Ideas:
- The American education system is unfair to neurodivergent students. This piece will reflect my own experiences with ableism throughout my school experiences, from ages 3 to now, pointing out how our school system continually fails to provide any substantial support to students, whose childhoods are already delicate times, with mental disabilities. Societal perceptions of neurodivergencies and the influence of gender will also be examined.
- Organizations that aim to “cure” autism are incredibly harmful to the autistic community. These organizations, such as the infamous Autism Speaks, are headed by neurotypical people and are supported by overbearing “autism parents” who see false hope in these scams. The attitudes that these prominent organizations display and spread to neurotypical “allies” ostracize the autistic community and promote the idea that most autistic people are unable to function in a neurotypical society. Due to this belief, the opinions of actually autistic people are shunned and silenced, and these organizations often have the major say in the societal perceptions of autism. I will reflect on my own experiences being autistic and how I, like most autistics, aren’t at all what these organizations claim and eventually stereotype.
Passion Blog Ideas:
- “Animal of the Week.” As an Ecology major who wants to go into wildlife conservation, and as that little autistic girl who’s always been fixated on animals, I would love to highlight an interesting animal species in my passion blog. I currently plan on writing pieces about little-known species and why it’s important to conserve such species, as well as how these species are being impacted by human activities.
- “Growing Up Special.” This blog will detail several moments in my life where my neurodivergencies impacted me the most, both the good and bad parts. It will serve to combat stereotypes about neurodivergent people and how these stereotypes inhibited my self-growth, but allowed for me a sense of freedom when I broke them.
Civic Issue Blog Ideas:
- Why does the American public education system fail to support mentally disabled students? This blog will consider statistical data of disabled student success and contrast public K-12 schools with specialized K-12 schools for neurodivergent students in order to dig into what our public education system is getting wrong about disabled pupils. Public school bullying policies will also be examined to determine how the social environment of many public schools puts disabled students at risk. Suggestions for improving the school environment will also be discussed, and my own ideas and experiences will also be implemented to further the discussion.
- Are major corporations influencing climate change policy? Corporations often have a much larger say in American politics than most would like to admit, and considering they’re mainly to blame for the current climate crisis, how far back does this corporate-government partnership go and why exactly are they so environmentally unregulated.
For your “This I Believe” ideas I really like the idea concerning the unfairness of the school system on neurodivergent people. I think that that is a really important issue that I would love to hear more about.
For your passion blog, I think both ideas are great and I think you should choose whichever one you feel most strongly about.
For your civic issues blog, I would love to read about climate change policy being influenced by corporations, since they are undoubtedly doing so.
I’ll begin with your passion blog ideas. I personally believe blogging about a different animal every week is such a cool idea. Also you being an ecology major is pretty cool as well. Anyways writing a blog about, especially endangered animals is a good idea. For your civic issue blog, I like the idea of climate change and how corporations could be influencing policies. You’re completely right that corporations have a higher say and they are the ultimate cause of climate change, and you diving in depth with this would be entertaining. Lastly for your “this I believe” podcast I think this is where you should write about the education system and their mistreatment of neurodivergent students ad your personal experiences with it.
It’s obvious that you are very passionate about the topics you are considering writing about, and I think it’s great how you plan to tie in your own experiences to give your arguments more depth! Knowing your interest in animals, I love your passion blog idea of highlighting a rare animal each week. I honestly think you could write a very moving, personal essay with either of you “This I Believe” topics, so I don’t know which I would choose. I like your first idea for the civic issues blog because I think it is an issue that many have not considered and it gives you space to discuss your own experiences as well.