The World Needs All Kinds of Minds: Wise Words From Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin delivering a speech at the 2024 National FFA Convention & Expo.
Autism’s Advocate
Temple Grandin is a world-renowned animal activist and animal science professor at Colorado State University, and she also holds a doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois. She is recognized for improving animal welfare through her neurodivergent thinking that comes from having autism. Through her inventions of the curved loading chute and the center-track restrainer system, Grandin forever transformed industry standards for livestock handling facilities and animal welfare management strategies.
Today, she is a worldwide-known advocate for valuing unique thinking styles for innovation and adapting education for diverse learners.
Visual Thinker, Global Impact
A lot of the people Grandin worked with on a farm had autism, and they were extremely skilled at building equipment. This opportunity effectively used their strengths and knack for visual thinking, allowing them to fully reach their potential in the workplace. Through a recent interview, Grandin emphasized the importance and relevance of all kinds of thinkers: visual, mathematical and verbal.
As an example from her experience, she described the types of thinking required to build a beef plant. “The shop people that invent mechanical equipment and all kinds of mechanical devices tend to be poor at math, but they can visualize equipment and invent it,” she says. “And then you need the mathematicians to do the refrigeration for the plant. Those people are going to be really good with computers and programming computers. Verbal thinkers are very good at remembering long strings of verbal information; they can remember 7 or 8 steps for setting up that equipment…We really need the different kinds of minds.”
Building Bridges Between Worlds
One of Grandin’s most famous quotes, “I am different, not less,” reinforces the necessity of embracing everyone’s ideas. FFA serves as a key organization to encourage teamwork, participation and open-mindedness. It does this through establishing a leading by example mindset and by inspiring others to achieve greatness while helping them shine.
“One thing FFA does really well is teaching the students discipline, running a meeting in a very disciplined way and getting them used to talking in public” Grandin says. “There are so many students today that are afraid to raise their hands and talk in class.”
Furthermore, she adds, “I read in the paper that Google was starving for talent. Well, these geeky, quirky kids, we need to get them interested in science. They’re not going to get interested if they’re not exposed to it.”
We, as future leaders, need to enter situations with respect, engagement and, of course, kindness. “Be nice to them,” Grandin says. “And help them to be successful. Find out what the person’s good at.” To do this, we need to expose students to opportunities that push them to be themselves, so that they are able to discover their passions and strengths.
As Grandin mentioned, everyone is capable of doing amazing things. We all have different skills and capabilities. When we put our minds together, we can create unthinkable solutions and ideas.
