"I often wonder how my education would have been handled differently today.  Some things would have been much easier because so much more is known about autism.  It is likely that my mother would have found a good speech therapist, teachers and doctors to work with me.  But the lack of structure and clear rules in today's world would be a major problem for me.  I was brought up in a world where what was right and wrong were very clear.  The structure environment of the 1950's was good for me.  Children with autism need clear rules" 

- Temple Grandin, (from the introduction to Children with Autism: A Parent's Guide)

I suppose it surprised me because today we look down on the 50's... I hear how rigid and old-fashioned, patriarchal and closed-minded it all was back then.  It brought up a question in my mind that perhaps one reason we seem to see so many children with autism may be because our culture has given our children no boundaries.  Perhaps there were just as many children with these tendencies back then, but it just wasn't noticed because they were just a little bit more comfortable in their world.

If it could only be balanced out... if we could drop the 50's nonsense about bottle feeding and crying it out, but still have boundaries, maybe we would finally achieve a perfect world, lol.