Well, if she doesn't have the capacity to understand it, of course she doesn't have the intellectual capacity to be a physicist. And it has nothing to do with the other students.

I don't have to compare one person's work with another person's work in order to know whether they have what it takes or not. I know that simply by what the person demonstrates.

And what does it matter if Jessica has been told by others that she couldn't or shouldn'be be a phsyicist. A professor isn't there to nurture the hurts of the student. They are there simply to teach whatever discipline they are teaching.

I have noticed that some people are always offended when you tell them they can't do things. They don't have the capacity to accept their own limitations. It's ego.

When I was at college in the States, I met another South African girl. She had a lot of disabilities. She wanted to be singer. She was desperate to be a singer. Her cousin worked in Hollywood and is, to some degree, famous. Not going to mention names.

After she had repeated (and failed) a class three or four times, the professor told her outright that she would never be able to sing.

She told me this, so I asked her why she just didn't go out and do gigs, that she didn't need to go to college to learn to sing. She never spoke to me again.

I've only just this minute worked out why. She actually thought one could be taught to sing if one didn't have a natural talent for it.

That said, I definitely think that if things were explained explicitly to people with Asperger's, they would learn. I have no doubt about that.

However, it would, in some cases, be difficult for them to accept certain things because they are so illogical.

Why on earth would one persist in pursuing a path when it was quite clear one was no good at it? And why take offence when someone mentions it? Surely one should be grateful that there is confirmation, and then one can invst in things one is much better at?