[Ms K]

Hello! Back again with another question that came up with my class!  

I'm autistic, and I LOVE finding characters who are--intentionally or not--also autistic, especially in books where that's not a central theme or conflict or anything. While reading the book, there were a *lot* of things about Mateo's personality and quirks that resonated with me and before I even realized it I'd sort of embraced him as "one of us" lol ...and honestly, when Mateo said that, before Mr. Kermit's class, he'd always felt so weird, like an android in a human world, I almost cried because of how much I felt like that when I was a kid, too. 

After my class finished the book and we were reviewing, we were talking about why each character got stuck in SCS-8. What made them unteachable? One of my students asked if Mateo was autistic, and a few others agreed with the reasoning and were curious too.

So, of course, now I'm extra curious! Did you intentionally write Mateo as being autistic-coded, or is that just a really awesome connection that happened unintentionally? 

 

(PS: after that curiosity popped up, several of my kids were utterly outraged that Mateo was "unteachable" just because he might be autistic and his quirks probably made other kids think he was weird and hard to get along with, and I was really proud of them for being so upset on his behalf. Puffy-tails all around!)

[J.R.]

Man, your class is angelic. My classmates would make a disgusted face and shift uncomfortably in their seats. I liked how Mateo talked about Lord Of The Rings though. You don’t hear-or read- of people liking books from some WWI veteran who died in the 70’s! Good point though. Excited to hear GK’s response on this.

NOT  GK, 

J.R.

Hi, Ms. K., (and J.R.),

I never thought of autism, but there are all sorts of people with varying degrees of unusual who just don't fit in. The Unteachables were basically a set of oddballs, taken one by one. Only a truly gifted teacher, one whose heart was bigger than his ego, could find a way to meld them into a single group with a single purpose. In the book, it happened by chance, but it did happen, and Mr. Kermit, flawed and damaged as he was, was still in there somewhere.

The class was right to be angry that Mateo fell through the cracks and didn't get the kind of attention he needed. We can hope that each one of them, as they move on to high school, is taken in hand by their new school. I like to think that Mr. Kermit will see to that. But please remember that, after all, none of them were "unteachable." They were "unreachable," rather, until the right teacher hit on the right way to get through to them.

Thanks for reaching out. (There, J.R. Will that do?)         -----Gordon Korman-----

[J.R.]

Yes, that will be sufficient.

Sincerely,

J.R.

[Asher]

Ms K

 

If you and your class like Neurodiverse characters, The Twinkie Squad should be their next GK read. It's one of his all time best (and my personal favorite of his 105 books).