#About different neurodivergences that the Pevensies and others might deal with

[sophieswundergarten]

Uhhh respectfully with regards to your post complaining about how Susan is said to be bad at school, please be aware that you basically saying that Susan being bad at school = they say Susan is stupid. There are LOTS of reasons why very intelligent people are bad at school. Including but not limited to learning disabilities like dyslexia, neurodivergencies like ADHD, PTSD, etc. It's ableist to equate "bad at school" to "stupid" so please just be aware of that for the future! Thanks so much! I really loved everything in that post of yours except that one thing that made me kind of uncomfortable and I thought you probably didn't know so thought I should let you know.

Thank you for your concern, Anon! I really appreciate how politely you worded this instead of outright yelling at me.

The irony of this situation is that my sibling and I actually have struggled with school over the years due to various neurodivergences/disabilities like dyslexia, dyscalculia, and OCD tendencies. And I am incredibly insecure about this!! Because I am very new to actually being a part of a community where I can talk about this stuff, and I have worked really hard to hide all of those things my whole life.

I almost went in another direction with the post, and suggested different things Susan may have struggled with, because I wholeheartedly believe she was NOT stupid. But my own anxiety took command there.

My initial idea was that the teachers and adults who were observing her from the outside wouldn't have recognized the reasons she was "no good at school". Either because they didn't have the context of what happened in Narnia, because she worked hard at hiding it because she felt the pressure to be a "good girl", or just because in that timeframe people didn't know about as much about learning disabilities!

Because the idea behind that post was about how the people in England/"our world" misunderstood Susan, and how she had to decide between playing the part people expected of her (Which may have included being pretty over smart) and choosing to be herself.

But, as I said, I chickened out and kind of skimmed over the topic. I didn't mean to imply anything, and I'm sorry for how that may have come off.

Thank you for pointing that out to me, because I hadn't realized how my own nervousness about speaking to something I deal with can come off as ableist or insensitive. The line between being honest and objective and sounding like I'm complaining or begging for attention is something I am incredibly wary of, and I don't have a lot of experience with conducting myself correctly around this topic.

Once again, I really appreciate how kindly you mentioned this and explained it to me. I will work to be aware of this and be more careful in the future.