Autism and Classical Myth: Plan B: slides for Fairer Societies

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Thursday 18 May 2023

Plan B: slides for Fairer Societies

I was wondering about the best Plan B in case the slides I've emailed ahead of an event I'm taking part in on Saturday don't get through for some reason. Then I had this idea: put them into a blog post...

Here they are: they are for the workshop "Ancient World Studies and Fairer Societies" and, like several other taking part, I'll be talking about working with young people who are in PRUs (Pupil Referral Units). In my previous posting, I said a little about the event.

The labels for this postings seek to convey the range of things that I plan to mention prompted by these slides...