Autism is often described as a disease or a plague, but when it comes to the American college or university, autism is often a competitive advantage rather than a problem to be solved. One reason American academe is so strong is because it mobilizes the strengths and talents of people on the autistic spectrum so effectively. In spite of some of the harmful rhetoric, the on-the-ground reality is that autistics have been very good for colleges, and colleges have been very good for autistics.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Sounds plausible ...
... Autism as Academic Paradigm. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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So-called diseases and plagues have been bringing wondrous things into the academic world since it first sprung up. Perhaps we ought to praise tuberculosis for shortening the lives of writers and artists, thus encouraging them to maximise whatever talent they had during the short life left to them. If in the cloning age parents will be able to catalogue-pick a child, will the strange desire to parent a 'genius' lead some to willingly give birth to an autistic child?
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