Homecoming For Nerds
Nerds shouldn’t have to use up their valuable sick-out excuses to avoid the horrors of Homecoming. Schools should create nerd-friendly alternatives to the sensory overload and fascistic vibe of overhyped school spirit days for sensitive souls.
This proposal for alternative activities at Homecoming for Public School Zero provides differentiation for students who do not thrive in a Rah-Rah school environment and represents a Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiative for neurodivergent members of the community.
Dumpster Diving for Books
Since the Moms of Liberty have closed your school library and just about any book you might want to read has been banned, most kids are left with what remains: online porn. But it is still possible to find real books to read in the dumpsters where they have been ditched. Kids can get exercise and fresh air by climbing into dumpsters and looking for literature.
Read-In
Having salvaged the books your tax dollars paid for, students can stage a Read-In at the 100-yard line (whatever that is). While high school athletes risk concussion, brain damage, and dementia on the field, nerds can lie in the grass experiencing the brain-enhancing flow state of reading.
Quiet Mediation
If the contents of your school library have already made it to landfill and there is nothing to read, students can enjoy the power of silent contemplation. Unlike Homecoming itself, which can be expensive for students and school districts, Quiet Meditation is free. Students who meditate show measurable health benefits including reducing stress, depression, and anxiety from having their libraries gutted.
This Classroom Relaxation Guide for Cats from School News Today can help.
Nerd-Friendly Playground Cleanup
If your school has a Nerd-Friendly Playground, Homecoming is a great time to clean it up. While the bullies are busy cheering and wasting money on decorations destined for landfill with the remains of Western literature, quiet kids can beautify their special spaces. And if your school doesn’t have a Nerd-Friendly playground: why not?!
If you look at a map of your school and see that the majority of outdoor space is set aside for neurotypical activities like high-contact/high-injury competitive sports, it’s time to think about a more inclusive campus.
Female Autism Awareness
Here’s a crazy suggestion: how about students try to learn something at Homecoming? For those kids who would rather be in the classroom than sweltering out on the field at the height of the skin cancer exposure hours, how about a seminar on Female Autism Awareness?
Were you aware that the definition of Autism was designed to fit young white males? Most women with autism have never been examined or diagnosed, and their Autism signs don’t fit the standard white male criteria.
Cultural control of women is so high that women are trained to mask the signs of Autism even from themselves.
Those girls who find the loud noises, bright lights, and crush of people at Homecoming overwhelming might just be autistic.
Research Club
People with autistic tendencies often have “Special Interests” they get pleasure from researching and exploring.
Instead of blindly celebrating how “unique” and “one-of-a-kind” your hometown is, how about a group Special Interest Project on what industry built your town and why? Was your school part of a Red Lining scheme that excluded people of color from economic opportunity and cultural resources? Is it possible your town was a Sundown Town where people of color were policed and brutalized after dark? Could that still be the case? Use this historic register to find out: Historical Database of Sundown Towns.
Debbie Downer Club
The Toxicity Positivity of Homecoming can be harmful to people with more contemplative, melancholic personalities. Let’s make this year’s celebration inclusive of Debbie Downer as well as Johnnie Joiner.