When great minds don’t think alike, how should we think about different styles of thinking?

When great minds don’t think alike, how should we think about different styles of thinking?

Temple Grandin is an amazing accomplished woman who has promoted the importance of visual thinking for a long time. Writer, teacher, inventor, this woman also happens to have the “gift” of being on the autism spectrum.

In this SDG we will learn from her and through our exploration about

• How Over the course of time our educational system has been heavily weighted in favor of one category of learners to the exclusion of others, devaluing the visual learner in favor of those who excel with the verbal.

• What are we missing by eschewing the potential of the visual learner?

• Who exactly is the visual learner and how do they enrich our society?

• Why have they been undervalued and what can be gained by tapping into their potential?

• How has the preference for verbal thinking skewed our perspective of intelligence and the ability of people to contribute to society?

• Why do we attribute greater value to the MBA than we do the technical skills?

• What do we lose by excluding the visual thinker?

• “When we fail to encourage and develop the talents and skills of people who think in different ways, we fail to integrate ways of learning and thinking that benefit and enrich society.” (p. 5, Introduction to Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin)

Plato Learners and Explorers please join us during the second 7 weeks of the fall term October 18 to November 29.