Mild
autistic traits can provide the single-mindedness that gets things done. Hans
Asperger stresses the value of people with Asperger's syndrome, recognizing
that they often achieve success in highly specialized academic professions. Individuals
with Asperger's syndrome who are not retarded or afflicted with extreme
rigidity of thinking can excel. Asperger concludes that narrow-mindedness can
be very valuable and can lead to outstanding achievement.
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There
are few Einsteins today. Maybe they all flunk the Graduate Record Exam or get
poor grades. I had to get through school by going through the back door,
because I failed the math part of the Graduate Record Exam. My grades in high
school were poor until I became motivated in my senior year. In college I did
well in biology and psychology but had great difficulty with French and math.
Most of the great geniuses have had very uneven skills. They are usually
terrible in one subject and brilliant in their special area. Richard Feynman
had very low scores on the Graduate Record Exam in English and History. His
physics score was perfect, but his art score was in the seventh percentile.
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Even
Einstein, after graduating from the Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, was
not able to obtain an academic appointment. He annoyed big important professors
when he told them that their theories were wrong. He had to take a job at the
Swiss patent office. While he was a patent clerk, he wrote his famous theory of
relativity and got it published in a physics journal. Today it would be
extremely difficult for a patent clerk to get a paper published in a physics
journal. If Einstein had lived today, his paper probably would have been
rejected and he would have stayed in the patent office.
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There
are many examples of great scientists, artists, and writers who were poor
students. Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, was not able to
master a foreign language. When he left school, he was considered only an
ordinary student. Darwin wrote in his autobiography, Life and Letters, which
was edited by his son Francis, "I was considered by all my masters and by
my father as a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of
intellect." He found life at Cambridge University dull and did poorly in
mathematics. Darwin's saving grace was his passion for collecting. This
provided the motivation to go on his famous voyage on the Beagle, where he
first formulated the theory of evolution.
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Gregor
Mendel, the father of modern genetics, was unable to pass the exam to get a
high school teaching license, according to Guinagh Kevin in his book Inspired
Amateurs. Mendel failed the exam several times. He conducted his classic
experiments in the corner of a monastery garden with pea plants. When he
presented the results at his university thesis defense, he failed to get his
degree. Nobody paid any attention to his wild theories, but fortunately 120
copies of his paper survived and were recognized as the works of genius that
they are after his death. Today his principles are taught in every high school
science class.
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During
my career, I have met many brilliant visual thinkers working in the maintenance
departments of meat plants. Some of these people are great designers and invent
all kinds of innovative equipment, but they were disillusioned and frustrated
at school. Our educational system weeds these people out of the system instead
of turning them into world-class scientists.
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Autistic
savants who can accomplish amazing feats of memory, drawing, calculation, or
reproduction of musical compositions usually have almost no social skills.
Until recently, many professionals assumed that savants could not be creative.
They thought that their brains acted as tape recorders or photocopiers. But
close examination of savant drawings and music shows that there can be true
creativity, and these skills can be developed. In Extraordinary People, Darold
A. Treffert cites two cases in which savants' social skills and musical and
artistic talents have both improved. These abilities will grow if the person is
encouraged and supported in this work by a good teacher. Stephen Wiltshire, the
famous autistic savant from England, draws fabulously detailed pictures of
buildings and also has great musical ability In his book An Anthropologist on
Mars, Oliver Sacks describes how Wiltshire's ability to improvise musically has
steadily improved and how when he sings all signs of autism disappear, only to
reappear when the music stops. Music transforms him and may temporarily open
the door to emotion. When he does his detailed beautiful drawings of buildings
he acts autistic. Contrary to popular belief, savants do not always have an
absolute photographic memory When Dr. Sacks asked him to make several drawings
of his house there were mistakes such as an added chimney or a window in the
wrong place. This was partly due to not having enough time to fully study the
house. When Stephen makes drawings of imaginary cities he takes bits and pieces
of building from his memory and puts them together in new ways. This IS the
same way I do design work.
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It's
clear that the genetic traits that can cause severe disabilities can also
provide the giftedness and genius that has produced some of the world's
greatest art and scientific discoveries. There is no black-and-white dividing
line between normal and abnormal. I believe there is a reason that disabilities
such as autism, severe manic-depression, and schizophrenia remain in our gene
pool even though there is much suffering as a result. Researchers speculate
that schizophrenia may be the evolutionary price that has to be paid for abilities
in language and social interactions. Tim Crow, of the Clinical Research Centre
in London, points out that the incidence of schizophrenia is the same in most
societies and that it is not decreasing, even though schizophrenics are less
likely than others to have children.
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The
genes that cause schizophrenia may confer advantages in milder form. This may
also be true for manic-depression and autism. In my own case, I believe my
contributions to humane slaughtering of cattle and improved treatment of
animals have been facilitated by my abnormality. But none of my work would have
been possible had I not developed a correlative system of belief.
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Temple
Grandin "Thinking in Pictures" (1996)
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