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John Yang:
Earlier this month, four new portraits went on view at the Smithsonian National Portrait gallery in Washington, D.C. they’re this year’s recipients of the Portrait of America Award for their transformative contributions to American history and culture.
One of them is Temple Grandin. She’s not only transformed animal welfare around the world, she’s also changing the public perception of people with autism. This weekend’s Spotlight is part of our ongoing coverage of the intersection of arts and Health, part of our canvas series.
David Lenz, Artist:
She’s a giant. I mean, she is a legend.
John Yang (voice-over):
Artist David Lenz painted the portrait of Temple Grandin.
David Lenz:
I wanted people to come into the museum and see a beautiful portrait of a person who’s done amazing work, who also happens to have autism.
John Yang (voice-over):
It depicts Grandin wearing her trademark outfit, an embroidered shirt and bolo tie. And of course, she’s on a cattle farm surrounded by livestock.
David Lenz:
They have very beautiful eyes. It’s easy to see that these are warm blooded feeling animals that are worthy of our humane treatment.
John Yang (voice-over):
The humane treatment of livestock has been Grandin’s life’s work. As a child, she didn’t speak until she was nearly four. The doctors who diagnosed her with autism recommended putting her in an institution. Her mother refused.
Now Grandin considers her unique mind her greatest strength. Her perspective was key to her groundbreaking redesign of cattle handling facilities to eliminate things that could frighten or unnerve livestock.
Today, her principles guide the way nearly half of cattle in North America are handled. She’s also helped ease anxiety for people with autism. As a teenager, she designed a squeeze machine to gently apply a calming pressure like a giant hug. She based it on a device she saw on a cattle farm to hold livestock in place for vaccinations, health checks and the like.
Temple Grandin:
When you walk back by him, you gotta do kind of a quick motion.
John Yang (voice-over):
Grandin has a PhD in animal science and is a professor at Colorado State University.
Temple Grandin:
And who wants to let this one out?
John Yang (voice-over):
She was the subject of an award winning HBO movie.
Woman:
I could see the world in a new way. I could see details that other people were blind to.
John Yang (voice-over):
and was on Time’s list of the 100 people who most affect our world. And she’s written more than a dozen books. Her talks and book signings draw big crowds. She says her story demonstrates the importance of having different kinds of thinkers. A message highlighted by the presence of her portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. It will be on view there until next November.
John Yang:
Earlier, I sat down with Temple Grandin. I asked her what she thought of her portrait.
Temple Grandin:
I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. I was so happy when I first saw it this beautiful. I kind of like the kind of misty rainbow in it, really like that. Our experiment station cattle look just great in that.
John Yang:
How did it feel when they told you were going to go into the National Portrait Gallery?
Temple Grandin:
Like, you got to be kidding. I think it’s like some of the Nobel Prize winners, they can — when they get the call from Sweden, they just can’t believe it. I almost couldn’t believe it going, you got to be kidding.
John Yang:
Now explain why there are cattle in this portrait.
Temple Grandin:
Well, cattle is what I have worked with. I’ve worked on designing facilities for cattle. I’ve worked on developing animal welfare guidelines, teaching people in the industry how to use them. I started out in the feed yards in Arizona back in the early seventies. Handling of cattle was dreadful, and I worked on designing better facilities.
I also wrote a lot of articles just on how to on cattle behavior, how to design things. I saw that cattle handling as something you could fix. Now, today, cattle handling is greatly, greatly improved. The livestock associations have training materials. You have to have both good equipment and. And the management. Good equipment makes good handling easier. And you have top management in a place that insists on handling cattle and other animals right.
Large customers like McDonald’s and other large customers are auditing animal welfare. Handling has really improved, and that’s something I’m very proud of, the improvements I’ve seen in that.
John Yang:
I know you don’t want to be known specifically or mostly for being someone with autism, but I’ve also heard you say that it helped you in your work with cattle and livestock.
Temple Grandin:
Well, I’m an extreme object visualizer. Everything I think about is a picture. So the very first work I did with cattle is I got down in a chute to see what cattle were seeing. They’d stop at a shadow, they’d stop at a reflection, they’d stop at a pickup park next to the facility. And visual distractions affected their behavior.
Now, at the time that I did this, in my 20s, I thought everybody was a visual thinker. And it was kind of shocked to me when I found out that they weren’t. In my latest book, Visual Thinking, I discussed the research on object visualizers. Like me, then you have more mathematical pattern thinkers then you have word thinkers. Problem with us object visualizers is we can’t do higher math. But I worked with people that were undiagnosed autistic.
They had big machine and welding shops, and they were inventing and patenting mechanical devices. And I’m very concerned that these people are getting screened out of our educational system.
John Yang:
In this case, different is a strength.
Temple Grandin:
Yes.
John Yang:
How does that play into how you talk to young people with autism, how you talk to families who may have children with autism?
Temple Grandin:
Well, autism goes all the way from Einstein and Bill Gates to somebody that never learns to speak. I learned to speak by age 4. I was good at art. My ability in art was always encouraged. Object visualizers are good at art, mechanical animals, and photography. So things that object visualizers are good at. Terrible at abstract math. Can’t remember it.
But I worked with all these shop people that had built and installed equipment for me. They couldn’t do algebra, and they’re not getting replaced. Who do you want fixing the hydraulics that steers your airplane or my airplane? I want that object visualizer. I don’t care about the algebra, but I want the steering to work on that plane.
John Yang:
Do you think the fact that there is so much discussion about autism, is that a good thing?
Temple Grandin:
Well, there’s a lot of things that are good. I’m a big proponent of developing strengths because you can get an autistic object visualizer like me, non-mathematician or you can get a mathematician, an extreme mathematician. And those kids are not being developed. I’ve been getting feedback from teachers that they make them just do the same boring little math in fourth grade. They get bored and then they turn into behavior problems when they need to be challenged with more advanced math.
And you want to take the strength and build on it. If the autistic person is an extreme mathematician, let’s develop that they’re an extreme object visualizer. I’m going to really push towards the mechanical.
John Yang:
families with children who are diagnosed with autism. They may think it’s a horrible thing, but what do you tell them?
Temple Grandin:
Well, when a child is like under age five, I looked very severe when I was two and a half. I was very lucky to get into very good early education. This is essential. I was taught language. I was taught the ability to wait and take turns at games and taught basic skills like getting dressed, brushing my teeth, basic skills. And this early education is really, really important. I’m seeing too many kids put on two year wait lists. We when they’re three years old. That is really bad.
And the other thing, mother had high expectations with some accommodations. When I was five, I remember going on a ferry boat, flinging myself on the floor, screaming when the horn blew. Well, we’re going to go on that ferry but you can ride in the cabin underneath away from the horn. Accommodation was made but we are going to go on that ferry. That’s the high expectation.
John Yang:
Have you thought about what you, how you want like to be remembered, what you want your legacy to be?
Temple Grandin:
Right now one of the big things I’ve been working on is recognizing the importance of object visualizers. And I’m worried about them getting screened out. Okay. I went up to community college and they’re doing a two year factory maintenance degree and requiring calculus and algebra. Well, you’re going to screen out the very best mechanic for keeping a factory running.
John Yang:
So is being a visual thinker your superpower?
Temple Grandin:
Yes, being a visual thinker. You say the extreme visual thinkers. And I’ve talked to a lot of photographers too. Very good photographers can’t do higher math, drawn to photography, they can excel in that. Very good with animals because animals are sensory based thinkers, but also very good with mechanical things.
I tell business people, plain and simple, we need the skills and the one thing where AI is not going to replace who’s going to fix an elevator or make sure the waterworks work or make sure the hydraulics works on a plane.
I just talked to a science teacher and her dad was cooking. Airplane mechanic couldn’t do any, any higher math. He fixed some hydraulic problem on a Boeing airplane and Boeing put it in every one of their airplanes because he could just see how the hydraulics works. We need these thinkers.
Now where we need our mathematical engineers. Let’s take something like a spaceship. The mathematician tells the thruster when to thrust, but the visual thinker has to make sure it’s put together properly.
You see, there’s two parts of engineering here, the mathematical part and what I call the clever engineers that often don’t get enough credit.
John Yang:
Temple Grandin, thank you very much.
Temple Grandin:
Thank you for having me.
