Search Weight Loss Topics:




Feb 13

Autism Transition: Returning To Craft And The Land – Forbes

Exercise Programs Comments Off on Autism Transition: Returning To Craft And The Land – Forbes

The unusual Meristem project in Northern California offers a structured curriculum of craft, the ... [+] practical arts, and working the land: all aimed at assisting youth on the autism spectrum transition into adulthood.

Falling off the cliff is the term often used by worried parents and family members when young adults with autism and other developmental differences turn 18. For most of these youth, the wide range of educational and behavioral services provided by their local school districts ends abruptly.

The numbers of these youth are growing rapidly: just among youth with a diagnosis of autism, 750,000-1,000,000 are projected to turn 18 over the next decade. In response, a new industry oftransition programs is emerginghundreds of transition programs nationwide aimed at integrating these youth into employment and the broader society. While most of these programs are based on current ideas of college inclusion and technical education, a few are drawing on older intellectual traditions regarding transition, emphasizing the land, practical arts and craft.

The Meristem campus is set on 13 bucolic acres outside of Sacramento: a series of cottages spread among a working farm, woodworking and metal shops, a bakery, walking trails and orchards. Its design and curriculum are based on the Ruskin Mill Trust, founded in England in 1987 to serve young adults with mental health and learning disabilities, rooted in the ideas of the nineteenth century art critic turned social advocate, John Ruskin.

Though Ruskin (1819-1900) first achieved public prominence in the 1840s and 1850s with a series of art histories and criticisms, by 1860 he had turned from art criticism to trying to remake Victorian society. He criticized industrialization and its division of labor as the degradation of work, and called for a return to the land and the practical arts. Receiving a large inheritance upon the death of his father in 1864, he put his ideas into practice, funding through his Guild of St. George, businesses that employed workers in hand producing cloth goods, textiles and fresh foods.

In the mid-1980s, the founders of the Ruskin Mill Trust discovered in Ruskins ideas on land and craft what they believed to be a transition path for youth with disabilities. Over the past thirty years, the Trust has succeeded in building land-and-craft based transition centers throughout England and Wales. Prominent Sacramento philanthropists, Marc Turtletaub and Maureen Curran-Turtletaub, visited these centers, and inspired, established Meristem in the Sacramento suburb of Fair Oaks, with a first cohort of students in 2015.

The Meristem curriculum is a structured one, combining classes in farming, the crafts (metal, wood, baking and the culinary arts), work skills, physical exercise and movement. Accompanying the training, the Meristem students also work in the businesses that Meristem has established Meristem Bakery, Meristem Herbal products and Meristem Model Bed and Breakfast.

Meristem officials envision that only a few students will pursue careers in farming and the crafts. The training is aimed mainly at other values: self-confidence, shedding of anxieties, self-advocacy, social participation. More than technical skills, these are the values that might overcome the isolation and marginality common in the past to adults with autism and other disabilities.

Edmund Knighton, Meristem President, has spoken in detail on the relation of craft and autism. Through craft, young adults practice discipline and persistence, with an emphasis on results.Referring to one student, Ben, with a withdrawn and remote demeanor prior to Meristem, Knighton explains, Ben receives objective feedback from the materials he sculpts or hammers or weaves. When successful, the product has value for others and the world because it is functional. With practice, students discipline themselves to persist through boredom, conflict with themselves and with others, and fatigue. As they are supported by instructors and peers to work through these challenges, their work becomes not only more functional but also more aesthetic.

Beyond craft, the connection to the land and natural environment is meant to reduce anxieties, provide grounding, and sharpen the ability to see things whole. Knighton details this connection to the land and farming in the following terms: Students experience the full cycle of organic/biodynamic plant life, from spouting the pastel to planting and weeding and watering and harvesting it. Then they clean it and use it as an ingredient in our bakery or caf to serve to the community. Experiencing the full cycle of a food substance that grows and then allows us to grow provides a deeply satisfying wholeness to our students, in contrast to so much in life that feels disconnected or in conflict. Lunch is a time where all staff and students sit down together and share a meal from the garden.

Along with craft and land, physical exercise and movement is the third of the Meristem pillars. Meristem co-founder Maureen Curran-Turtletaub believes movement is vital, students start each day with movement activities, and are encouraged to develop an exercise and healthy eating regimen.

Meristem has grown from a few students in 2015 to a cohort of 45, with a waiting list, and ideas of expanding to other locations in California. Students are becoming involved in the local Sacramento community, through taking classes at America River community college and other local colleges. The Meristem businesses, especially the bakery, are venturing out to sell to the area residentspushing students to practice sales and executive skills. This year Meristem is even forming its own youth chapter of the Rotary Club.

Dr. Lou Vismara is a retired cardiologist, co-founder of the UC Davis MIND Institute, and former Meristem board member. While on the board, he would take time to meet with new Meristem students and follow their experiences, and writes of his findings: Upon enrollment, many of Meristems students manifested aloof and withdrawn behaviors, When I first met with members of the entering cohort, their anxiety, stress and detachment was pervasive and truly palpable. During the course of Meristems program, virtually all of the students demonstrated a great sense of identity, purpose and self-confidence.

We still have much to learn about the element of effective transition programs and processes for young people with developmental differences. Autism diagnoses began to rise in the 1980s, and the first cohort is now in their thirties and forties, and for nearly all of them transition has been an on-going process, not a point in time, with shifting challenges in the work places and social inclusion.

Even as our post-industrial economy evolves in America, with few workers producing a physical product, craft and the land continue to hold an allure for social thinkers. A growing genre ofbooks (Shop Class as Soulcraft, The Cliff Walk,The Craftsman, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, to name a few) celebrate a return to work with ones hands and craft. Meristems land and craft approach is in line with this broader intellectual movement. Though Meristem is still in its initial stage, there is reason to think it holds promise especially for youth with autism and other developmental differences.

Original post:
Autism Transition: Returning To Craft And The Land - Forbes

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker