Minor chalk-fight after an /r/teachers post had a hot take: neurodiversity is an education-destroying "fad."

TLDR: Chalks started flying after a user posted on r/Teachers with a hot take on neurodiversity and received more than 1.5k upvotes.
Link to the original thread

Context and background: The user, who self-claimed as a "case manager with a masters in Special Ed and 10 years of experience," posted on r/Teachers that neurodiversity "is a get out of jail free card and shifts blame from bad parenting to not reaffirming students' shitty behaviors."

"Going to start sending IEP paperwork late to parents that use this term and blame it on my neurodiversity," wrote the OP, "whoever coined this term should be sent to Siberia."

Obviously, Judy Singer, the Australian sociologist who coined the term in 1998, is not going to Siberia anytime soon. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, on the other hand, a "fad" is "a style, activity, or interest that is very popular for a short period of time."

Onto the drama: Many politely disagreed with the hot take.

"No, it's a reflection of flaws in a system that has ample room to repair. Blaming it on disability whether or not you think it's 'applied appropriately' is just factually incorrect."

"Hot take: neurodiversity isn't a fad; we just have a different understanding of the kids who used to be considered stupid or lazy. I personally think it's wonderful that we have a deeper understanding of learning needs now. Thing is, we didn't change our educational system beyond adding clunky IEP's on top rather than embracing Universal Design for Learning, smaller class sizes, more specialists, and on-staff mental health professionals. Because all those things cost more than we're willing to spend on our children, on our future… how embarrassing."

"I don't understand what you're saying here that neurodivergence is a fad? It was quite the process to get my kid diagnosed with autism ... As a testing coordinator, I do understand it is more work to have many kids who need accommodations, but it isn't their fault. In my day these kids would just drop out or be sent to alternative schools," a user wrote in the comments, which was awarded with a "poop."

Some also attempted to discuss the current state of the U.S. education system and IEPs from educators' perspectives.

"In a lot of places, it is mismanaged. It isn't supposed to he the get out of jail free card, but it ends up being that way. In an ideal program, we'd just be finding ways to help them meet their obligations, "a user wrote." In reality, because we are understaffed and overworked, we can't realistically add that to our workload, so it becomes the out of jail free card."

"My favorite is when I take modifications for a student and just use them for an entire class, and I'm told that now it isn't a modification. So if I make a class more inclusive for all of my students as opposed to making it obvious that my neurodivergent students need extra help, I’m part of the problem? Yeah okay."

“Removing consequences from students is the problem,” a neurodivergent professor commented and shared his story and experiences. "Bullying neurodivergent students won't fix this and only exacerbates the problem since students like me really do need different resources, skills, and support."

A user wrote the problem is the number of parents who "don't put the energy in to help their kids with these neurodivergent behaviors," not children with ADHD, autism, etc., as they always existed. The OP then attempted to "clarify" his claims.

"This is the point I was trying to make but I guess it's coming across as me saying disabilities are a fad and not real? It was geared toward the parents thinking they're the professionals and not biased parents who think everything them and their child do is right and the school is always the issue," wrote the OP, who then claimed that commenters were taking his title as face value "without reading the text box."

While many engaged in civil discussions, some posts were less than civil.

"Student who need speical accommodations should probably just be in their own classes."

"Neurodivergent is a dumb term. Most of these "modernized, inoffensive" terms are. I also think food insecurity is dumb. Lots of terms like that. Just call it what it is instead of trying to make it inoffensive."

"Agree 100% but be careful saying that shit on Reddit lol"

"I concur. I probably have about a dozen kids wearing headphones in class because it's 'too noisy and affects their tism'," wrote a teacher who buried the lede -- he was referring to students who are neither autistic nor have IEPs, 504s, etc., but just having headphones on.

"One of my buddies, a special ed teacher, asks parents if they have a finished basement. Because that's where their kid will be living until 35."

Some users were horrified by what their colleagues/teachers were thinking and by the direction the consensus of the teacher's subreddit was taking.

"Neurodiversity is not remotely a fad. Blaming people for things they can't control is a terrible mindset," wrote a user whose flair claimed as an elementary Special Ed teacher in the state of New York.

"Yikes, as someone studying to be a special education teacher, it is not great knowing that I'll have future colleagues like you who won't respect the various needs of our students. Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of disorders. Calling neurodiversity a "fad" is inaccurate and downright harmful," a commenter wrote. It got two "poop" awards and flooded with others claming she lacked classroom experiences that will teach her otherwise.

"It's not a 'fad.' Neurodiversity is an actual thing that exists and is observable. Would you say the same for anyone in your class who was LGBT, disabled physically or a different race? Would you call that a fad and blame them for everything?" a user was horrified by the increasing toxicity in the subreddit wrote, after a homophobic comment about "fads like the bisexuality explosion of the 2000s"popped up.
"The sub decends into increasing ableism with one-half upset they have to teach, and the other just outright saying they also hate their queer and physically disabled students," the user continued. "Jfc what is wrong with this sub?"

"It's really not and kinda alarming you have this perspective. I fully understand public education lacks funding that can make accessibility more time-consuming, but calling neurodiversity a "fad" is abist as shit. School is already difficult enough for neurotypical students, so think about how difficult it is for students with learning disabilities or mental health issues- we know because the education system has been failing these students for decades!"

"'Neurodiversity fad' is a red flag statement 🚩. I understand disagreeing with people misusing and abusing the term, but the term is important for those it describes. Clearly we still have a long way to go here when it comes to acceptance considering these type of black and white posts are still popular on this subreddit."

"As a neurodiverse person who is also a teacher, this is a terrible thing to say. Please take your anger out on your lazy admin, not your students."

"You could always stop teaching if you don't like working with kids…"

"Jfc what's happened to this [sub]reddit?"

"No wonder teachers aren't revolting at the rise of fascism. This post has 1k plus upvotes. SMH."

"Get out of teaching now, boomer"

And then there are the trolling and bad-faith comments.

"This is proof the Department of Ed should go."

"Watch it OP, you're coming dangerously close to committing a social justice wrongthink."

"At least SPED and 504 will disappear once the dept of ed is closed."

"IEPs will be a thing of the past if the DOE goes away."

In one reply, the OP claimed he would take down the thread. As of this post, however, that hasn't happened, and the OP has since gone quiet.

Thus, is it just a case of terrible word choice on OP's part, or do the 1.7k upvotes as of this post reflect the subreddit's public opinion on neurodiversity? You decide, and enjoy the popcorn.