Cav's Place

I once again need the first post of the week to be a non-personal one and, while it’d have been easy to write a short comment about one of the many current crises, it’d be inappropriate to treat such matters in such a manner, so I want to avoid it if I can. And an article I stumbled into on The Guardian, about local councils failing to offer adequate alternatives for children who can’t attend school because of social anxiety, offered me the opportunity to do so, leading to this quick post that deals with both a general issue and a personal one.
Many years ago, I ended up writing a post about how school was for me because of this anxiety after being surprised to find an article about the topic in a newspaper from here. However, even after all this time, despite the fact things have clearly improved since then, at least when it comes to the issue being recognized, seeing it presented in the mainstream in an understanding manner, with calls for acceptance and alternatives instead of “advice” aimed at making those with social anxiety fight themselves and change, sadly remains highly unusual. And, as that article proves, even in places where the official discourse has evolved to that level, things are very different in practice.
Admittedly, even that article mentions autism or ADHD in the specific examples given, which are different matters that enjoy, if I may use the term, far better recognition and at least a somewhat higher degree of acceptance, but the fact that the title and first paragraph are about social anxiety makes the difference, making it clear that the main topic is that those who are too afraid to attend classes need adequate alternatives, so they won’t be forced to live in such terror in order to go through school. Over here, the very idea would likely still be quite shocking, and the articles about anxiety when it comes to attending school that I found on Romanian sites after a quick search, while written in a more understanding manner, still focus solely on “helping” the child or teenager overcome or at least cope with the anxiety and attend anyway, but the fact that some parts of the world have finally evolved past that level, at least in terms of the official discourse, offers some hope.
Admittedly, having such alternatives wouldn’t have really been a benefit in my case, and in fact it would have likely done more harm than good, since I don’t see what I’d have gained from more formal education, considering what that meant then and, for the most part, what it still means, and having ways to continue without actually attending would have meant not dropping out and therefore at the very least being unable to dedicate myself to the relationship with Andra as much as I did, if it wouldn’t have prevented that relationship from existing in the first place, which would have made it the greatest possible harm for me, regardless of how things turned out. But, moving away from these completely personal concerns, such alternatives absolutely need to exist, to allow those who want formal education to obtain it in good conditions despite the anxiety.