aspie rhetor

Autism Awareness Day

Although I love composition theory (reading it, obsessing over it, writing it, using it + fire in lieu of natural gas for heating purposes), theory-ish musings often frustrate me. In fact, if I were forced to condense the past thirty years of composition theory into one all-encompassing solution statement, it’d probably resemble this: we [educators, students, graduate lackeys] need to be more aware [of _insert variable here_].

Now that I’m aware that gender, race, class, and disability are ideologically imbricated constructs [and I'm also aware that, as a teacher, I'm an [in]advertent extension of a hegemonic academy] — now that I’m “aware,” I’m immune to life’s crappiness, and my students will become better-er, moral-er and literate-r people. [Because morality and literacy and good citizenship are all connected and stuff.] In short, awareness = me being awesome. Thanks, comp theory.

Now, I’m sure that my above citation-less paragraph is probably *not* one that any budding comp theorist should compose, let alone show to advisor-type or hiring-type people. And I must also note that I’m not against the concepts (e.g., recognizing ideology) that our current awareness mantras attempt to foster. But, whenever we stretch into the realm of theory, I feel as though our main “praxis recourse” always inches towards “awareness.” Certainly, there are ways to be actively aware — letting theory inform your pedagogy, or “contextualizing” [another comp-theory buzz word] theory/practice for your students’ particular needs.

Nevertheless, because awareness is such a general, almost voyeuristic term, I think that preaching “contextualized awareness” sounds oxymoronic at times. In fact, being aware seems pretty synonymous with receiving awareness, thereby mirroring the “teacher as transmitter of knowledge” model, this idea that the un-aware haven’t yet gotten some sort of Almighty, Capitalized Knowledge that will Capitalized Save them from their Capitalized Wretchedness. If we really love social constructiveness so much, I think we should cease and desist with the “be aware!!!” model. My solution? Be aware, or beware, of awareness.

I suppose I should now segue into autism: today is Autism Awareness Day, and April is Autism Awareness Month. I’m wondering if I should wear a t-shirt that sports the phrase “I exist.” Would I then be completing my duty as an autistic citizen? Or would that be too decontextualized for neurotypical tastes?