Teachers called Elon Musk 'retarded' because he 'stared into space,' dad Errol reveals

Elon Musk's father Errol Musk has revealed that the billionaire was branded "retarded" by teachers when he was seven years old because he would "stare into space." The Tesla CEO's father said he was left dumbstruck when his son's principal and second-grade teacher told him Elon needed to go to a special school.

Errol added that it was agreed it might be an issue with Elon's hearing and was solved by getting him ear grommets. The 76-year-old estranged father made these claims about his 50-year-old son in a YouTube series titled 'Five Minutes with Errol Musk' next to clinical psychologist Anneke. "I knew he wasn't retarded, but I didn't know what to say," Errol said.

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"If somebody said something that he thought was not smart he would say, 'That's stupid' or 'You're stupid,' you know? I think he may have got it from me, but I hope not," revealed Errol while laughing. He added that the teacher said, "There's something wrong with Elon," and he was "immediately relieved" because he was expecting the "stupid thing" to come out. The teacher told Errol that Elon "stares out of the window all the time" in a "fixed position."

He explained, "I thought okay, well what's wrong with that, but I didn't say anything and turned to the principal and he said to me, 'Look, we think Elon needs a special school.' I didn't know quite what to say, so the principal then said to me, 'We think Elon’s retarded.'" He added, "I looked at them both and the teacher was almost in tears, and I wasn't sure what to say."

"We sat there in a sort of dumb silence for a few seconds, and then the principal came to the rescue and said, 'Maybe there's something wrong with his hearing.' So this was like fantastic. And the teacher said, 'Yes, yes that's it.'  And he and I said, 'Yes.' If it was any other place, we would have got up and held each other and done a bit of a jig or something," Errol laughed.

He promised to have Elon's hearing tested immediately and found that there was nothing wrong with his ears, but his hearing was 80% and he needed ear grommets. "What I did realize was he's in the wrong school. I managed to get him into a private school, somewhat snobbish sort of school but obviously the best, you know? A very old private school. And that was the end of it," Errol concluded.

Elon has previously spoken about growing up with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism spectrum disorder that leads to difficulties in relating to others socially. Talking about Errol, Elon told The Rolling Stone, "He was such a terrible human being. You have no idea. My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil. You have no idea about how bad. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done."