My BlogHer friend Susan, who authors the most excellent blog The Family Room, recently attended a screening of a new documentary called Autism: The Musical. She wrote about her experience on her BabyCenter blog and asked that people spread the word about this most excellent film.

According to the web site, it's the story of 5 autistic kids who come together to write and produce and perform a musical. It's very real, in that it shows the kids having good days and bad days, and tries to strip away the misconceptions that most of us have about kids on the autistic spectrum.

The movie premieres Tuesday March 25 on HBO. If you don't have HBO, they will be streaming it on their web site free of charge. Now that's a cool thing to do, if you ask me.

My daughter, age 8, aka Little IT, has been in an inclusion class at her elementary school. These kind of classes merge regular kids with kids who need more specialized attention. In retrospect, being in that class was much more of a wonderful experience for her than I could have possibly imagined. Early in the year, the teacher noted to me how compassionate she was when some of the inclusion kids were struggling with things in class. She would often volunteer to read with the kids or help out with math. She was even selected to be in a formal "mentoring" program, spending 2 recess periods per week playing with an incoming kindergartner with autism. I'm proud that she's that way, and hope she will continue to make the choice, whether consciously nor not, to show compassion to others.

I've let her teachers know about the movie and hope they will talk to the kids about watching it. Little IT and I certainly will be. From what Susan said, it looks like a winner.

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