Universities for Aspies/Auties

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What would you think of this idea? I think it could be very effective. In my imagined vision, there would be several colleges built which would all be affiliated with one another but would have differences that would allow each to create the best experience for its own student body. Each school's admission requirements could be based on several factors like level of functioning, special interests, etc. Has this ever been tried or considered before? I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.

Last edited by NightsideEclipse on 05 Jan 2008, 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've been wanting to start a high school for Aspies and auties. We should have a whole school for them; from preschool thru university!

I had a psychologist tell me that they have schools for those with Asperger's/autism in the US; I don't know if it's up to tertiary, but they have them somewhere in some form.

They have some in the UK too... elementary and secondary, I think. there's Orion Academy in California which is a private college prep school for grades 3 thru 9, I think...

The ones I have heard of are called schools, but are extended care and run like prisons.

Online education is gong to free people. I do not know what to do with a degree, since I do not want to go out, but learning is good. We are well suited for life on the web.

I have been considering a trade school based around media, publishing, animation. It takes both the machines, and the talent that can come over the web.

Nightside, do you think that such a school would have grades? I've found it interesting to read about institutions and professors who have experimented with withholding grades, to encourage students to learn for learning's sake. I can't decide whether or not that would be attractive to most aspies.

In my ideal university, professors would teach information not opinions--especially not political opinions. There would be few or no general education requirements outside of what the major itself required.

The main reason I suggested this was so that aspies might be able to have the social experience together that they often miss out on when attending NT-oriented school. I don't see why they'd have to be run like prisons, especially if there was a predominance of aspie faculty and administrators.

That sounds like a possibility. This reminds me of Evergreen College in Olympia, WA where the professors do an extended write-up on each student instead of letter grades. It is a qualitatively more significant method in my opinion, though I understand it can be a problem when looking for a job and the boss doesn't want to take the time to read everything. I'll have to ask my neighbor who is graduating from Evergreen this year what he thinks about that.


I agree with the first sentence. As for the second sentence, I agree to some degree, but I would personally want to take other classes anyway in order to become more "well-rounded" so to speak; I guess I'm a proponent of what is called liberal education (nothing to do with politics, also called humanistic education or liberal arts education) but those who don't subscribe to that should have the option of studying a more directly focused curriculum, I agree.

It's not any easier to interact with people on the spectrum compared to normal people to me.

Certain academic allowances could be made in such a school to concentrate on our strengths rather than our weaknesses. I don't see why an individual with Asperger's [or anyone] must take classes that aren't in relation to their special interest (a language when one is into mathematics for example).

Inventor,

Sometimes, people with Asperger's learn better when there's a teacher talking, rather than learning by themselves (for some, executive dysfunction is so bad that one cannot be motivated to study on one's own no matter how much they wish to do it).

Okay!! Wrong Planet is full of wonderful people but now it's time to create a new section on this site that's dedicated to building on our strengths together to create the communities we need, whether it be schools or activist newspapers or corporations where we can call each other's ideas stupid and not get fired for our bluntness.

I'm working locally to make changes but we have the internet and are all geeky enough to make the internet work for us.

Step one-- anyone?

I learn best with a hands on approach. A teacher yakking away to the class isn't actually teaching me much. Forcing me to read text and answer random questions doesn't teach me much either. I need practical application. Things I can and will use regularly. Otherwise it's a waste of time.

Ok, now we just need to find some billionaire to kick us some cheddar. We could hit up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill has got some autistic traits, doesn't he?

P.S. Enjoy the figurative language.

Am I the only one who thinks that the class sizes would have to be REAL small?? On the other hand, the best class I ever took in college was a subject I hated but had to have to graduate, Philosophy. There were 5 of us and the Professor. GREAT class. I think because of the size.

No practical experiance here but four aspies to a standard four corner room.

The prison aspect is because people will pay for it, and the students would excape if they could.

Learning is not schools of teachers for me, but learning something, not about it. I have problems with machines that none of the books cover, and still have to make it work.

There are several types of learnning, most can pick it out of a university, and their plan is mainstream, they just want to fit in. I want to know it, to the point of writng the next book on it.

A lot of college is infered education, learning to socialize, and getting a letter grade lower for being annoying. In the world you would be fired. So cultural conditioning which is wasted on me, and annoys.

We have two roads here, and I have walked both, learning to fit in the world, and learning to get out. It is not an aspie thing, lots of NTs want out.

I am making sure I never go back. I think is possible with the Internet, that many do not have to get involved, which would be great, because there are a lot that never will, who can do great things.

I am working on a business that might hire ten, more or less, for I like people who work when they get to it. I want talent, and that does not come 9 to 5.

We need to rethink education and work.

Do you want interpersonal skills? Do you want factual knowledge, The type of hands on knowledge it takes to turn an idea into a product, whickh publishing is a simple version of, or do you want to write a book on it? Set up and run a company that does it? Each is a different skill set, and each person has a learning style, personality, and will learn best when the feed is right.

I have a simple math program I patented. There are five basic different ways that people learn math, and a great teacher knows them all. Then there is the IQ range, and personalitys. There are hundreds of possible combinations.

Now throw in some autism, and we have real fun. It can be done.

Give me goals, what, is before how.

There are some colleges in the United States that have autism/aspergers programs currently in place. I've already started researching this even though my son is still in elementary school.

Marshall University (i believe it was them) had the most interesting one that I ran across. You have to pay extra for it, but they give their AS students help with writing papers, organization, and social skills. It's like a college within a college.

I really wish a college would come up with a program that would exempt AS students from the general education requirements. I found those courses to be fluffy and they took away time I could have devoted to my major. That frustrated me. I can only imagine how much more it would frustrate someone with AS.

There is a secondary school for Aspies opening up here this year. (Age 12 - 18)

And my college, University COllege Cork, Ireland, was actually fantastic at helping me out and making life easier.
I'd worry that going to a specific college would lessen the choices of course I had available?