When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the misconceptions about autism, emphasizing that autistic individuals are a part of our society and should not be viewed as separate or different.
Simon Baron-Cohen reflects on the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding autism when he began his career. He points out that many people viewed autistic children as entirely different from others, likening them to beings from another planet or suggesting they had been raised in isolation. This perspective reinforces the importance of understanding and accepting autism as a part of the diverse fabric of humanity rather than as an otherness that alienates these individuals.
In practice
In a seminar on autism awareness, this quote can be used to emphasize the need to challenge stereotypes.
Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble. It is effective as a way of anticipating and resolving interpersonal problems, whether this is a marital conflict, an international conflict, a problem at work, difficulties in a friendship, political deadlocks, a family dispute, or a problem with a neighbor.
Brains come in different types and they're all normal.
Well, in the general population, we find differences between the typical male and typical female. For example, males seem to be more interested in systems and females seem to be more interested in people and particularly people's emotions.
Empathy is a skill like any other human skill - and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it.
There are people with Asperger's whom I've met who certainly would be very upset to learn they'd hurt another person's feelings. They often have very strong moral consciences and moral codes. They care about not hurting people.
If we treat another person as essentially bad, we dehumanize him or her. If we take the view that every human being has some good in them, even if it is only 0.1 percent of their makeup, then by focusing on their good part, we humanize them. By acknowledging and attending to and rewarding their good part, we allow it to grow, like a small flower in a desert.
I learned to read at the age of five, in Brother Justiniano's class at the De la Salle Academy in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space.
Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.
There is something irreversible about acquiring knowledge; and the simulation of the search for it differs in a most profound way from the reality.
Learning to sing one's own songs, to trust the particular cadences of own's voices, is also the goal of any writer.
I've said so often to pastors, if your sermon can't get out of your zip code throw it away. It has to be transcendent. If it can't be translated into another language then it's not a right reflection of the word of God.
You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
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