highly educated? and Aspergers?

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Was not a brilliant student at school....... possibly too traumatised and also switching of lessons to another subjes=ct when I was just "tuning in"........ later as an adult I started studying areas of interest........ have degrees in a variety of areas....and to various levels....taught....but continued studying ( as special interest) for about 30 years of formal part time Uni degrees.... both on campus and distance .........always refused to study anything that didn't appeal,.....was/am always passionate about whatever area of study I'm involved in..... ranging from Visual Arts...History.....Psychology........Languages .........Literature... Philosophy........
Teaching a single subject area was good.......but politics, staff, parent and all that side of stuff too much... pandering....... expected to abandon principles and philosophy at whim of a Higher Body ( ED dept. Principal etc).... not acceptable. Recall representing a child "autistic with severe disabilities) at an Intergration meeting........everything from funding pressure groups, parents' egoes.........considered... ALL EXCEPT the WELLBEING of the child.....he had been attending mornings at public school and afternoons at Autistic Special ( where he had spent all of his previous schooling)......IMO he had only just become adjusted to this pattern ( after one school year) and I felt that another 1 or 2 years attending on the same basis would be the best option...... the rest decided on him being fulltime at public school despite that he had no verbal language and was in no way "intergrating" with the other students...only with his fulltime carer. I left that school... found out he later went to a Special school again... and was moved into special accomodation.
On the whole I found working within the "system" horrendous...........it was taboo to go home for lunch, or to eat anywhere but the staffroom....mandatory to be "seen" to "participate" in what? "listening to people go on about their own children's achievements....boring especially when being childless"....
Sorry for the RANT! Last weeks not been good.

I found myself in university for the first time when I was sixteen, but back then aspergers didn't exist and I found no way to fit in. Tried undergraduate studies again a few times into the seventies, without success, and then discovered the infosphere which has paid my rent ever since.

I finally earned myself an MBA for my fiftieth birthday. That was a year or two before aspergers diagnosis cast its unflattering light onto my life and destroyed my unjustified but persistent sense of superiority. I'm still trying to make the degree pay for itself.

Bright at school all the way through, but not at all social...seen as nerd from kindergarten; seen as 'unusual but nice ; from infancy. One teacher at H/school in class told me he thought I was a fraud,ie, not smart at all- I was 15! I told him to "G/F"in class and didn't talk to him for rest of the year. Still think I was too generous to this intolerance.

Craved to get to uni from kindergarten and just got grades to do so (due to school social /bully pressures waning my sense of self. But when I got there , I was in heaven.
Grades ordinary but sense of self and understanding thrived. I have and still do love learning.

So got my BA in Psychology and followed through with G/Dip/Ed. The last was deliberate choice to work and explore a work world mired in political social skill . My journey in this area led me to knowing how drammatically different was my value base from most others in that work world. It propelled me to understand AS also. Then I went looking for formal analysis of same.
Have started up two other uni courses, but didn't continue due to family needing the finances more.

University or other education areas are lighthouses to me. I have to keep up the connection.

Having been diagnosed with AS at 14, I've recently got an MSc (cum laude) in astrophysics. Planning to continue with a PhD.

I recall a statistic from some study saying that those with diagnosed AS are a lot less likely to complete higher education than the "normal" population.

Sounds right to me, as one can't choose where there interest lies; it can be math, music or...chasing evidence for the existence of The Mothman.

Then I suppose I was lucky that mine was in physics and science in general.

I've got a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering and a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting. I've been told they're competing practices. Ehh.

I see you're from a neighbour country, Denmark.
I myself live in Sweden.

it's a well known fact that the average Aspie will struggle in school, usually because of co-morbid LD and/or difficulty giving a crap about the information that does not pertain to their interests. Temple Grandin is an Autie, she struggled with all subjects until she wanted to design livestock equipment and found that she had to learn the crap in order to do her thing. Albert Einstein not dx-ed of course but likely was an Aspie, was failing MATH until he was placed in a school where the teaching style more closely matched his learning style. John Robinson, author of Look Me in the Eye, dropped out of school and failed before doing so, but is clearly highly gifted and very successful.

I was lucky. My special interest has always been the arts, and I excel in traditional academic subjects in those areas. Reading comprehension and written expression are strong suits for me. I have a B.A. in English. I found, however, that as a teacher, I cannot teach those subjects because I just don't get why folks can't understand it. I can't help them achieve. I found Direct Instruction methods amazing because it teaches these skills systematically and gives me the tools I need to teach these skills.

But I have a co-morbid learning disability in math computation. And obviously, as an Aspie, I struggle with verbal communication and social skills. And because I've struggled in those areas, I do my best teaching in those areas because I totally get why my students struggle. I gravitated toward Special Education and earned a Master's Degree. I'm going to start my training as a BCBA (aba specialist) as soon as I can get some funds together.

Most kids with Asperger Syndrome will struggle in school due to the way a traditional class is structured for the NT mindset. It's a mismatch between the two and doesn't reflect on the ABILITY of the Aspie to learn. Just the ability of the Aspie to learn under those circumstances.

The rumor started from Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and Einstein laughed when they showed him the "fact".

Me. I am 3 months away from a M.D. I have also attended an ivy league college undergrad. I have not struggled with academics in college, but every stage I have struggled with social aspects. I suppose it is a little better in graduate school because you are grouped with people with similar ambitions and interests.

I have a BA. I never studied in High School, but had to in College. Very disorganized and didn't know how to study. If I had to say the one thing that would have helped me its that (know how to study). Many books on the subject now.

That's cool too. We have a number of Scandinavians here.

I find this very interesting because my schooling has not matched my special interest. For example: I am in medicine but my last interest was caulking houses and before that rewiring electric guitars. I put way more energy into my interests yet I am still successfull. You never know when knowing every single pittsburgh penguin player since 1995 will come to use!

got to agree here, Danielsmyname, which is why i made a reference earlier to auto-didacticism. I think some people posting here with degrees are simply able to fit into a system of learning better than some others of us, who remain more "autistic" and individualised in how we need to learn, and thus we are far too outside the box to fit in to the strictures of an academic course.

In my case, i tried 3 to 4 times to do so. Recently, I looked into doing a Masters without an undergrad degree and all was going well with that as a possibility. The uni were supporting it. I had the support and help of the disabilities services officer from the uni. In the end though, it became apparent yet again that what would be required of me would be a level of ongoing adherence to the academic requirements and a level of communicative engagement with an academic staff that was beyond me. It would have been like caging up one of my special interests and throwing away the key for good. (and the academic staff did not have a clue about ASD's. The disabilities officer did, and she was wonderful. )

and I am also not quite sure why "highy educated" seems to be equated with tertiary degrees here! That seems to be quite humourous to me on an ASD forum. I thought the whole issue for many of us was and is that we are often very bright in certain areas, even if that is not adequately recognised by the mainstream.

At the same time, I am happy for those who have achieved in the tertiary realm and been able to do so, if that is what they want to do. That is wonderful.

I have never been able to fit into university and academia. I was unable to complete coursework, organise my time, manage anxiety, make friends, give presentations, network, or interact with staff. I would have regular mini breakdowns and flee the rooms or buildings.