Reply to Does the academic giftedness that comes with autism outweigh the social struggles?

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Reply to "Does the academic giftedness that comes with autism outweigh the social struggles?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I'm an academic, and man oh man, are there a lot of ASD types who become professors.  (I remember a particular faculty meeting where I looked around the conference table and realized that everyone was stimming.  Good times.)

One thing that helps is if your particular 'special interest' is something that is potentially saleable to an employer, or if it's something that makes you seem social and fun rather than quirky and weird.  Lots of people whose special interest is something medieval renaissance related, and that gets you dates at Ren Faires, but not a lot of job openings for that particular specialty at the university (or elsewhere in the world, I would presume) Probably better if your special interest has something to do with AI or computers, etc.

I am on the spectrum and am married with kids.  My husband is great but neither of us has a lot of close friends.  We struggle socially.  But honestly, my kids' special interests bring them a lot of joy -- whether it's music or World War One artillery or endangered animals.

But I would echo the sentiment that the people who make the big bucks and get into positions of power are the socially skilled B students, not the weirdos like me who did all the reading and then read everything mentioned in the footnotes to prepare for lecture.  I see it with my own students.

Also the world is kind of set up for 'bright' students who are normies, more than brilliant students who are not.  We had an elementary school teacher who was big on having the kids do oral book reports, etc.  and the rubric explicitly gave a grade for eye contact and having an expressive voice, and I remember wondering if I needed to get IEP to not have my kid downgraded for those things, or if it was better to force her to learn those things, and to learn that the world rewards those things.  So no, it's not all fun and games.   [/quote]

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