At the Temple

I caught Temple Grandin (trailer) on HBO this weekend. It’s a fascinating biography (and a pretty decent movie) that is also an intersection of topics that interest me: education, the meat industry, and women’s rights in the 60s.

I first heard about Dr. Temple Grandin a few years ago when my gentleman friend was still working for the food magazine and his colleague interviewed her for the meat industry trade magazine.  But then this fall the ads for HBO’s new movie further piqued my interest (which should be no surprise, since my sucker-hood for slick cable TV advertising is well documented).

I actually caught the movie about half an hour in, lying in a hotel room on Valentine’s Day.  So, while the rest of the hotel was luxuriating and feeding each other breakfast in bed to their sweeties, my Valentine and I, in somewhat predictable fashion, were transfixed on the mechanics of Dr. Grandin’s cow dip system (figure 1- a system to calmly move cows into a de-lousing vat)

and squeeze machine (fig 2- a machine Grandin built in college to mimic a calming hug that a mother may give her child).

Seeing the cinematic portrayal of her alienation as a student was heartbreaking to me.  Some of you know that I teach at a school that I lovingly call “the nerd hall”. All of our students test to place in, and the freshman placement into the nerd hall is a much sought-after seat in my district.  Every year, I also teach a handful of students with high-functioning autism or Asberger’s Syndrome.

These are students, like Grandin, who have flabbergasting genius-level intelligence, but who also may exhibit a host of social and interpersonal issues.  Luckily, I teach at a school that is welcoming of the uniquities of each student, and all of my students are of an ilk that celebrate differences among themselves.

What also makes this movie timely is that there is a current debate brewing about the inclusion of Asperberger’s Syndrome as a form of autism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM V.  It’ll be interesting to see how this new classification will affect students with autism and Asperger’s in the coming year.

I’ll admit that the slaughterhouse scenes affected me. Again, on Valentine’s Day, while lounging on a fluffy king-sized hotel bed in a bathrobe, I was weeping silently over the staged deaths of cattle. (I mean really, can you find a better Valentine’s Day activity?  I will be happy to plan yours next year if this intrigues you!)

While I’m no vegetarian, I do respect and love animals, and I was further engendered with (slightly self-righteous) pride regarding my recent subscription to a meat CSA (community supported agriculture) share.

Regardless of your interests, whether they be about meat, autism, or women’s education, you can at least see how Angela Chase is finally earning her acting chops.  (But is she good enough in Temple Grandin to make you forget her role as a fallen star in Stardust?)