ASD: ABILITY OR DISABILITY? Michael Fitzgerald, a UK professor of psychiatry, claims that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and creative genius are caused by common genes. In fact, claims Fitzgerald, ASD led to the success of many historical prominent figures in science, politics, and the arts. An article in the UK paper The Telegraph lists achievers given an ASD diagnosis by Fitzgerald on the basis of biographical details. Among the achievers: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, George Orwell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Hans Christian Andersen, and Immanuel Kant. The professor recently published the book Genius Genes: How Asperger Talents Changed the World.

GOOD GOING: ANOTHER 2e SCHOOL. The Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal ran an article about the Layton Preparatory School, a small, private high school for students with learning differences. The article quotes one of the school's co-directors: "These are smart kids; intelligence is not a question at all. Some of them are very visual learners. Some of them have different ways to process. These are creative, cool kids who need to learn differently." With a student-teacher ratio of 3-1, tuition is $25,000 a year. Visit the school's web site.

HOMEWORK: SHIFTING ATTITUDES. The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: The Homework Experience reveals a shift in attitudes toward homework, with fewer students describing it as busywork. A student's attitude toward homework also correlates with success, according to the survey. Highlights: most teachers, parents, and students believe that doing homework is important or very important; most students reported spending at least 30 minutes a day on homework, almost half at least an hour; 42 percent of students receive homework every day; and the vast majority of students do their homework as part of multitasking (listening to music, watching TV, IMing, etc.)

MIT GOES TO HIGH SCHOOL. We've written previously about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's OpenCourseWare initiative, whereby course materials from MIT's offerings are made available free of charge over the Internet. Now, according to Education Week, MIT offers "Highlights for High School," materials targeted at K-12 teachers and students. Education Week's article describes how some teachers use the resource and what one MIT professor thinks about the endeavor.

SAME OLD GAME. Education Week noted two dangers to the Javits Program, perhaps the national symbol for gifted education. One: the U.S. Department of Education is evidently tinkering with how Javits funding is prioritized and spent, leading to some dilution of its original purpose. Two: while in previous years we'd reported that the "traditional" $11 million program was always in jeopardy from Neanderthal legislators and executives, it seems that now there are DOE-wide cuts in effect that finance the program at only $7.5 million for 2008.  Read the article. [EDITORIAL: NAGC estimates that there are 3 million gifted kids in the United States. $7.5 million is $2.50 for each kid. Now that's an amount that's sure to allow each of those gifted kids to reach full potential.]

GOING SOMEPLACE DIFFERENT. A recent issue of the Washington Post contained a review of the book How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move? Inside My Autistic Mind. The book is by Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, a 19-year-old young man who at age 3 was declared "hopelessly autistic... unable ever to communicate... a being with no mental presence." The book covers how his mother taught him and describes what the reviewer, Susanne Antonetta, says is Tito's "astonishingly rich sensory world, a place ripe with transformations and synesthesia." The review alone is intensely thought-provoking, pointing out how "the pride or shame of persons like Tito is a constructed thing, based on the culture in which he finds himself, a culture constantly demanding proof of his ability to think." The construct evoked by Antonetta should be familiar to those who live in or visit the world of twice-exceptionalities.

Dating for Aspies. That should have been the real title; instead the authors called it Autistics' Guide to Dating: A Book by Autistics, for Autistics and Those Who Love Them or Who are in Love with Them. It's written by an Aspie couple who met as college students, then gave an autism conference presentation about dating -- and things progressed from there. According to an article in the Seattle Times, the book deals with such topics as communication, touch, and narrow interests.

LD, AD/HD, BA, BS. In February, Newsday reviewed the newest edition of a book called The K & W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. According to the review, this ninth edition profiles 356 colleges which the authors recommend as having distinctive programs and services for LD or AD/HD students. Read the review.