Temple Grandin Essay

This is a film study on Temple Grandin, a woman with autism who achieved academic success despite her disability. By the age of 2, Temple was diagnosed with autism, considered then to be a form of brain damage. Her mother, Eustacia, initially blamed her daughter’s physicians for her condition. The medical consensus at that time was that autism was a form of schizophrenia resulting from insufficient maternal affection. The film follows Temple Grandin's life, providing background through a series of flashbacks. As a child, Grandin is uncommunicative and prone to tantrums. Despite recommendations to place her in an institution, Grandin's mother hires therapists and works to help her daughter adapt to social interaction. Rather than accept the …show more content…
She goes on to change the cattle industry by designing and building an improved process to move cattle from holding pens to the slaughterhouse, treating them with respect and even saving the cattle industry money. Temple also faces sexism while attempting to integrate into the male-dominated world of cattle ranching. She designs and builds a new dip structure, where the animal enters a pool of chemically treated water to kill parasites. This new and improved dip structure allows cattle to voluntarily move through the twists and turns of the pens rather than being forced typically with electrical cattle prods. Initially, the device works as intended, and gets favorable coverage in local area press outlets. However, some of the male ranch hands did not understand her design and altered it. As a result, several cows worth thousands of dollars drown. This needless loss of cattle and money, not to mention the pain and suffering of the animals, angered her. Grandin visits Dr. Carlock and shares with him the terrible experience. She leaves the meeting encouraged to continue her efforts to improve the industry. Grandin eventually graduates from Franklin Pierce College with a degree in psychology and pursues a masters’ degree in animal