AS moments: Taking things literally

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There can be a problem with an AS mom homeschooling an AS kid. Like today, one of her assignment questions said:
"Where does your lesson say you can observe adhesion?"
My answer was simple, and I didn't see why they asked it. It was: page 6, paragraph 3 sentence 3. Thankfully, my daughter (who also came up with the same answer at first) realized they wanted the example, not the location of the answer. I think if she would have answered my answer, her teacher would have thought she was being a smart ass. lol.

I agree that it's a very strange question. Complain to the teacher. What course is that question for, anyways?

That's hilarious. When I read that, what popped into my mind was "This question".

Terribly worded question.

DAMN our aspie precision ...

If they wanted an example, they should have said "Give the example in your book that you learned about adhesion." Wouldn't the wording they gave trip anyone up? Sometimes I get that people with AS are too literal, but sometimes it's not our fault, sometimes NT's are far too vague or use stupid idioms or something that make no sense when they can just say what they mean. This is an example right here where all they should have said is "I want the example from your book that you learned about adhesion."

LOL. The course is Biology, and the answer was the dew on spider webs. It was talking about how water was adhesive to certain objects. I tried to think of a way to reword the question, and the only thing I could come up with was:
"Where, in your lesson, does it say that you can observe adhesion?" but by the time I had come up with that one, I still was thinking that the answer was page 6, paragraph 3 sentence 3. lol.

Oh, I agree that it is their fault, but the problem come in that it is not out of a book. It is an online lesson, so she was referring to the entire lesson. It is like saying, look at chapter 6 in your book and tell me... Either way, it was too vague. I agree. I will probably let her know for the future. She had written the assignment just for my daughter, so she probably was not thinking when she put it down. I just thought it was funny that both my daughter and I thought the same thing.

When people say something wasn't our (aspie) fault, it makes it sound like the question was poorly worded or the sentence and anyone would have misunderstood it so it had nothing to do with our condition. That's the impression I get when I get told something isn't my fault.

Of course the opposite could be true because maybe they mean it wasn't my fault because I took it literal and they are taking the blame even though everyone else would have understood.

I would have thought the same as you. It was a poorly worded question.

Here's a better question:
What are some examples of places where you find water adhesion?

and if the answers aren't all in lesson then so what.

If you notice in your everyday life NTs have a tendency to shorthand their phrases, questions, statements, and sentences. A good chunk of the time I understand the shorthand but their are times I have problems myself. It may have been that this question was a form of shorthand which means certain words were left out and they were implied. I think I know what the implied phrase was. What the teacher is really asking is "Where does your lesson say you can observe adhesion and please list this particular example?"

A lot of times they don't use their words correctly as well. For example, some people call a highway a street. Another example is the interstate highway system. For a long time, I've always thoughts this was the one and only example of a highway. NTs have a tendency to shorthand this phrase to either interstate or highway. What it does is it muddles up the definition of what a highway is. It can be confusing sometimes to straighten all of this crap out. I did not know about the thing with the interstate highway system myself until League_Girl told me about this.