Autism Unawareness

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Last night I gave my students an exam. It was a Physiology exam and one of the topics covered was mirror neurons which had a reference to autism. Several students raised their hand and asked me what autism was. I couldn't believe it! Aside from the fact that it was mentioned in lecture, how could these students not know what autism is?! These are 3rd year undergraduates in one of the top universities in the country and most of them will be applying to medical school. What was even more shocking though, was when I went and told the other TA that I couldn't believe the students didn't know what autism is and he replied 'just tell them that it is a form of mental retardation'.

WHAT??! !??

Is this representative of the general population? Are people really that ignorant about the subject?

I guess it is hard for me to believe that a lot of people know nearly nothing about a subject that I am obsessed with.

People like that make me sick.

On a more positive note you're in a good position to slay ignorance.

Sorry to say this but..... Welcome to the real world.

The general ignorance of society used to shock me, especially on some topics I thought everyone knew about, but unfortunately i've gotten used to it.
I have to add myself into the equation when I say society because I find that every year or so I discover big things about subjects I thought I knew a lot about, but I find that when I really look into it I had absolutely no clue whatsoever.

I am truly sorry you've had this shock and found just how 'uneducated' your undergraduates are but such is life.

(As I do in many posts I feel a need to apologise if the above seemed overly harsh as that was not my intention.)

Gets worse, those who do know something about autism are grossly misinformed by the scare tactics of Autism Speaks
and exaggerated portrayals of autism in movies such as "Rain-Man".

Ignorance is piss topic

For someone of his educational level (TA) this person is the backward one. he should not be in such as position, influencing the learning of others.

A 'friend' of my son once referred to me as a 'ret*d', a 'sped' (slang for special ed) and my son no longer has any contact with him. Way to go, Mark! Thanks for the support.

Unfortunately this ignorance stretches itself to after med school.

Cardiologists, pulmonologists, rheumatologists...etc...don't need to know about autism.

That said, I actually had a young Early Intervention teacher tell me my daughter and son could not possibly have autism because "they don't act like it".

I didn't know about it for 48 years, and I are one...

To be honest I feel quite embarrassed about how little I knew about Autism in a general sense before I started reading about Aspergers. The trouble is that there's just no point at which someone would find out. What would it be covered under at school? It could just about slip into Biology or Psychology, but I've not heard of it being taught under either. Almost all media coverage is useless.

What I would do is find a nice information sheet about autism - the one on the national autistic society's website is good - and make a copy for all your students, telling them you think it would clear up their misconceptions. Sorted.

I've already typed my opinion about this in Autism Is a Dirty Word. I hate how people only think about Rain Man. They don't think about Bill Gates, or Sue Ruben. They don't think about Temple Gradin. They don't think about the fictional characters, who are in other movies, such as Austin Powers, who is clearly an aspie, or Sid, who's quite a bit more affected by AS, than Austin. They don't think about that woman in the movie, 'Under The Piano'.

A typical comment I get is that I can't be autistic because "your nothing like Bobbie (a non-verbal LFA woman I went to school with)"

Ok, I read all of your replies and I realize that I was not justified in being shocked especially since I myself did not know much about autism several years ago. I am likely equally ignorant about other issues that mean a lot to someone else.