To a member of the rabid right like Beach,anything with a "progressive" slant is viewed as having a Marxist orientation. The type of schools program Beach would approve of is the likes of School Cadet Units, where children can be taught the finer art of killing.
As for Miranda Devine and the 'Daily Telegraph' both are well known for when no facts exists, they simply invent them.

//Not so sure about the banning of clapping...which seems pretty stupid.//

Not if you're autistic, in which case it might well seem like a blessed relief. For a lot of people with ASD, excessive noise can induce panic attacks, outbursts of rage and even induce pain.

Is it really worth maintaining a practice for no more reason than tradition, when it might be adversely affecting some students? Especially when there already exists the well-established method of silently displaying appreciation through 'visual applause', which the deaf community have been doing for years?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOxT5P7YvUI
http://libguides.gallaudet.edu/content.php?pid=351741

Nah, you're probably right Poirot. We should keep inflicting cruel & unusual punishment on kids with autism, because that's what is traditional. All this 'progressive' pandering to the disabled nonsense is just political correctness gone mad, right guys?

Toni,

What's your solution for the traffic noise when the kids are going to or coming from school; silent horns, silent engines?

Within the class rooms and elsewhere we could introduce silent music, and that would stop the suffering of many more.

"Not if you're autistic, in which case it might well seem like a blessed relief. For a lot of people with ASD, excessive noise can induce panic attacks, outbursts of rage and even induce pain."

Well that can be true...although it's more like sudden machinery noise, sudden loud clanging or high pitched sound is likely to induce those reactions.

Clapping, less so.

Myriad things can upset an autistic person's sensory process - even lighting in classrooms...depending on the person.

Clapping is such a universal human trait - it's more than "tradition" - I still think it's an odd decision,

"Nah, you're probably right Poirot. We should keep inflicting cruel & unusual punishment on kids with autism, because that's what is traditional. All this 'progressive' pandering to the disabled nonsense is just political correctness gone mad, right guys?"

Don't lecture me on autism...I have plenty of experience with a high-functioning son who does have issues with auditory perception and reactions to certain sudden noises.

I will point out to you that, although "HFAs" do have issues and needs, they also in most cases are attempting to fit into mainstream life...banning clapping is dumb.

It doesn't surprise me at all, as we live in a world that seems more focussed on issue like 'gay marriage' than real issues like the hard renewables is doing to the SA economy. Or the fact that we have a PM who is wanting to punish those who have paid into their super, as per the laws, by making his ruling retrospective dating back some nine years, although there are some within who are bucking the idea, so hopefully this 'dud' we seem stuck with will change his views. Remembering, this is the same idiot who played cat and mouse with the states over taxes.

So to have these types of things happening at school level just goes to show how weak as a nation we have become, and leaves one wondering if they will ever tackle the real game changing issues.

Is Mise,

"What's your solution for the traffic noise when the kids are going to or coming from school; silent horns, silent engines?"

Good point.

I remember when my son was about six years-old, we were walking down the street and a Harley Davidson went past at the precise moment the rider decided to rev up with no muffler.

The sound was so loud that my son fell straight onto his back with his hands up to his ears - totally flattened he was.

I'd never seen anything like it.

We do what we can for folks with that sort of sensory sensitivity - the sound was even disturbing for me - but what can one do with traffic.

The sound of a car driving on the tarmac is often enough for my son to put his hands up to his ears...but he just has to live with it because we live with cars.

I have to warn him if I'm going to vacuum, etc...but he manages quite well with the sensitivity in general.