In this New York Times article, Temple Grandin (Colorado State University) says she didn’t have language until she was four years old. She was diagnosed as brain damaged, then on the autism spectrum. She gradually blossomed, in different ways – for example, at age 7 or 8 she was experimenting with parachutes made of old scarves, single-mindedly, almost obsessively, trying to figure out how to get them to open more quickly.
Over time, Grandin realized that she was a visual thinker, seeing the world in “photo-realistic pictures… with images clicking through my mind a little bit like PowerPoint slides or TikTok videos.” Reading about inventors like Edison and the Wright brothers, Grandin realized that many of them shared her powers of observation, single-mindedness, and persistence and wondered if some were also on the autism spectrum.
Most other people, Grandin saw, are “word-centric,” mostly seeing the world and communicating verbally. A term was coined for them – neurotypical – along with a descriptor for people like Grandin – neurodivergent. The popularization of this term, she says, and “society’s growing understanding about the different ways that brains work, are unquestionably positive developments for many individuals like me.”
For all the gifts visual thinkers possess, says Grandin, life is still challenging for them. That’s true in schools that “force students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum” and in jobs that rely heavily on verbal skills. “This must change,” she says, “not only because neurodivergent people, and all visual thinkers, deserve better, but also because without a major shift in how we think about how we learn, American innovation will be stifled.” To fix American infrastructure, she believes, we need people with visual skills and hyper-focused attention.
Grandin’s number one suggestion for improving K-12 schools: “Put more of an emphasis on hands-on classes such as art, music, sewing, woodworking, cooking, theater, auto mechanics, and welding… These classes also expose students – especially neurodivergent students – to skills that could become a career. Exposure is key. Too many students are growing up having never used a tool. They are completely removed from the world of the practical.” Grandin says she would have hated school if it hadn’t been for teachers who allowed her to think visually and have direct tactile experiences.
Algebra was too abstract, she says, because it’s usually taught with no visual correlations. With today’s curriculum requirements, Grandin believes she would have difficulty graduating from high school. Better to provide alternative routes with courses like statistics incorporating real-world applications, making it possible for students who are “bad at math” to graduate and move into careers that put their skills to work. Grandin did poorly on the math SAT, which prevented her from getting into veterinary school – yet today she is a professor of animal sciences and is asked to speak to academics, corporate executives, and government officials around the world. “The true measure of education,” she says, “isn’t what grades students get today but where they are 10 years later.”
She believes about 20 percent of the drafting technicians and skilled welders she’s worked with over the last 25 years designing and constructing equipment to manage livestock are on the spectrum. It’s not just the unique contributions that neurodiverse people make, says Grandin; it’s also the synergy that takes place in diverse teams: “If you’ve ever attended a meeting where nothing gets solved, it may be because there are too many people who think alike.”
In her travels, Grandin has noticed a number of high-quality products in the U.S. that are made in other countries – for example, most of the highest-tech silicon chips are made in Taiwan; much of the specialized mechanical equipment for processing meat is made in the Netherlands and Germany; the glass walls of the Steve Jobs Theater in California were made in Italy, the massive carbon fiber roof in Dubai.
The reason, says Grandin, might be that these and other countries give 14-year-olds the choice of pursuing a university or a vocational pathway. The latter “is not looked down on or regarded as a lesser form of intelligence,” she says. “And that’s how it should be everywhere, because the skill sets of visual thinkers are essential to finding real-world solutions to society’s many problems.”
“Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All” by Temple Grandin in The New York Times, January 12, 2023; Grandin’s 2022 book is Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions
Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #969 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.
