is this math professor an aspie?

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these are the comments from his students:

no people skills whatsoever

I Love prof Israel...He's been like a father to me! Great all round guy! Did you know he scored almost perfect on his SATs and went to Princeton with a full ride scholarship! This man's a genious!

His lectures are very confusing. And he seems to not quite know the material himself for this course. Once, he was doing a problem on the board and he had to save it for next time because he wasn't sure if he did it right...

Good, nice prof. Could improve speaking ability to an audience. Puts relevant notes up on web. Good tests, and overall good prof.

the worse math prof i ve ever seen...but he's a nice guy...just can't teach

OMG his sentences were so fragmented that I forgot what he was talking about after he finished his sentence. Impossible to stay awake during lectures. Hope his midterms and final are fair!

He's a jerk, who the hell reads off of another teacher's note pkg as notes. He cannot speak a sentence w/o pausing and often has side conversations with himself. ABOVE ALL...he cant teach SAVE YOURSELF!! !

HORRID teacher! he just stood at the front of the room and mumbled under his breath while writing on the board and definitely lost track of his own thoughts numerous times per lecture! He seems nice, but hes just not a goood teacher, try to avoid him. tests were hard!

Going to this lecture made me depressed. He was a very nice guy but read the online notes word for word and spoke in monotone the whole time. Everyone pretty much ignored him and just talked amongst themselves. Quite helpful through email.

I agree with the last posting. I think Dr. Israel is brilliant, but he just cannot teach. He faces the board and mumbles and forgets what he was saying until the class ends up leaving (some decide to leave halfway through). I don't know anyone who really understands him.

Professor Israel is a very smart teacher, however, he doesn't really interact with his students. He just teaches and talks to the board most of the time. And because most of the time he doesn't throughout explains step by step how he arrived to an answer, students do not know how to question him when he expects us to. Midterms were hard as well.

OK all in all, this guy can't really teach, mumbles and stuff. I think he really knows his stuff but like I said, CAN'T TEACH. I feel so bad for him, he's obviously not comfortable lecturing, and students just leave class in the middle of lectures. Poor guy, not a mean teacher, just needs to work on oral skills.

that is very interesting, he does seem to have a communication deficit and has problems processing thought on the spot. He offers good online support, which further confirms it. I can relate to a lot of these traits on a personal level...

This describes the vast majority of Mathematics professors.

I agree to an extent pandabear. Certain traits described are the stereotype of the nerdy professor, though the majority of professors don't mumble to themselves and ignore their class, and that is why he is recieving some negative feedback i.e. the students view him as relatively worse off than the other teachers they have experienced.

But this does not necessarily mean he is an aspie or anything, it does mean that he is more than likely to be lost in his head and has problems effectively communicating the material and his own thoughts. As for slower thought processing, rather than being on the spot, it is due to these observations:

(a) He reads the notes, and does not rely on himself in the moment (he doesn't to be lazy and unitnrested, as he puts up extensive notes online and provides good online support);
(b) Has side conversations with himself.

Most maths professors are not like that...otherwise it would not have been flagged by the students.

Sounds nicer than my math prof!

Those who can't do; teach. Those who can't teach; teach gym - Woody Allen...