APPLETON (NBC 26) — Sinclair Robins, a senior at Fox Valley Lutheran High School, has contributed to a newly released book aimed at improving the educational experience for African-American girls.
"Teaching Beautiful Brilliant Black Girls" contains stories from more than 80 contributing authors, including Robins who shares her experience in a vignette titled “Did I Even Matter?”
Robins is an advocate not only for African-American girls, but for girls on the autism spectrum due to her own experience with autism.
A proud neurodiversity advocate, Robins seeks to increase awareness about autism, remove the stigma that surrounds those with autism, bring light to the high costs of diagnosis and treating autism and to make others aware of the high rates of depression among those on the spectrum due to bullying.
"(Autistic people) do not understand things as quickly as you do," Robins said. "Our brain's function differently than yours and yet, for some of the ways that neuro-typical people treat autistic people, it's not right."
Robins' submission for the book was a personal experience in the fourth grade where she pointed out an inaccuracy regarding slavery to her teacher and was reprimanded for that.
Robins would like educators, specifically white educators, to know that they have a heavy impact on all children, especially children of color and especially on sensitive topics in American history, she said.
