• by Sophie Kleber , February 12, 2010

There are three types of thinking: Photo-realistic visual thinkers (Temple) - poor at algebra Pattern thinkers - music and math Verbal thinkers - poor at drawing The autistic mind attends more to details. Temple thinks in pictures. Visual thinking has been Temple's huge advantage when designing animal facilities. In order to understand animals, one needs to attend to details of a picture. What do animals see? Strip away human interpretation and you may be able to better understand. This way, sensory-based information is put into different categories. I.e. a man on the ground is absolutely not the same as a man on horse. The world need different kinds of minds to work together. Instead of making everyone equal, foster kids' individual traits, show them new things.We need to help students who have unique minds to be successful. Light the spark!

In the end, it's the geeky autistic gene who sits in Silicone Valley and who will ultimately save the energy crisis.