What challenges do you think a person with Aspergers faces as a teacher? (university, degree)
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The biggest obstacle for an Aspies in teaching, and it is a HUGE obstacle, is the inability to read social cues. This leads to the inability to read facial expressions and interpret them, the inability to catch on to subtle signals of distress, and inability to appropriately proactively prevent a thousand little mini incidents that could blow up into a crisis if left unchecked. The second obstacle is the inability to quickly deescalate once an incident occurs. The third biggest obstacle is lack of flexibility. The first glaring issue all this results in is an inability to appropriately manage a classroom.
Simply put, teaching in a K-12 setting is not an appropriate career for someone on the spectrum. The real issue is that a teacher does not get accommodations, instead they are the accommodators. The ADA does not cover this as appropriate social response is considered an essential skill in teaching.
I will try to find some of the threads from various Aspies who have struggled with this, reading them might help you get a picture of the struggles.
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These are the first two I found, but there are others. My heart always breaks for people who find themselves in this position, and I do to some degree blame the university that didn’t stop them before they got a degree.
No career is inherently out-of-reach for all people on the spectrum. Autistic people's symptoms vary in range and severity from person to person, and appropriate social behaviors can be learned.
As a person on the spectrum, I would guess the biggest hurdle for me would be knowing how to deal with kids' unruly behavior, especially when two kids are arguing or fighting with each other and both want me to take their side, or when the particular way they're goofing off is unusual and not something teachers would usually encounter. (This would be less of a problem the older the classes you're teaching are.) I don't know how education degree programs work, but I would suggest paying a lot of attention to the conflict management-type stuff. Emotional intensity + ambiguity + everything coming at you at once with no time to prepare = a nightmare for most autistic folk.
No career is inherently out-of-reach for all people on the spectrum. Autistic people's symptoms vary in range and severity from person to person, and appropriate social behaviors can be learned.
As a person on the spectrum, I would guess the biggest hurdle for me would be knowing how to deal with kids' unruly behavior, especially when two kids are arguing or fighting with each other and both want me to take their side, or when the particular way they're goofing off is unusual and not something teachers would usually encounter. (This would be less of a problem the older the classes you're teaching are.) I don't know how education degree programs work, but I would suggest paying a lot of attention to the conflict management-type stuff. Emotional intensity + ambiguity + everything coming at you at once with no time to prepare = a nightmare for most autistic folk.
Yes, there are careers that are inherently out-of-reach to people, for instance any career that involves music is off limits for me. Sure, I might be able to eke out a degree that would “qualify” me to have said career, because I could produce academic work that indicates I understood the book knowledge/theories, but if I managed to get a job in the industry I would be fired the minute sound came out of my mouth. Teaching K-12 is a career that should be off limits for people on the spectrum because of the bolded.
I think people on the spectrum get attracted to education because it is something they are familiar with, and was a place that was more accommodating than society as a whole. The issue is their previous experience in education was as a student, and students have very, very different roles, expectations, and reality in a public school environment than a teacher. I have yet to meet a person on the spectrum who got tenured. I’m sure they exist, perhaps at the high school level, but I’ve never met one and I have met numerous non-tenured teachers on the spectrum. It’s usually a one year, maybe two if they are science or math, painful experience for all involved.
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I was diagnosed as having Aspergers when I was 42. One issue is constantly being front and centered as the center of attention to at least 20 students. Another issue is sensory overload with so many voices, tapping, rustling of clothing, and the other school noises. Another issue is staying on topic/subject without going on a wild tangent. Students can learn it’s easy to distract you off topic. Lunch or recess duty can be overwhelming with noise. A free period to decompress midway through the day could help.
Yes, there are careers that are inherently out-of-reach to people, for instance any career that involves music is off limits for me. Sure, I might be able to eke out a degree that would “qualify” me to have said career, because I could produce academic work that indicates I understood the book knowledge/theories, but if I managed to get a job in the industry I would be fired the minute sound came out of my mouth. Teaching K-12 is a career that should be off limits for people on the spectrum because of the bolded.
I think people on the spectrum get attracted to education because it is something they are familiar with, and was a place that was more accommodating than society as a whole. The issue is their previous experience in education was as a student, and students have very, very different roles, expectations, and reality in a public school environment than a teacher. I have yet to meet a person on the spectrum who got tenured. I’m sure they exist, perhaps at the high school level, but I’ve never met one and I have met numerous non-tenured teachers on the spectrum. It’s usually a one year, maybe two if they are science or math, painful experience for all involved.
Perhaps an AP upper level high school class (esp. in science and math), where the focus would be more on academics and less on behavioral management? Or college level.
Perhaps an AP upper level high school class (esp. in science and math), where the focus would be more on academics and less on behavioral management? Or college level.
Yes, I agree, once pedological competence becomes a minor consideration having Aspergers, in itself, is not really an impediment; think of all the tales of absent minded professors (had a few myself). I imagine today they would have an Aspergers label. However, in the high school setting, schools very seldomly hire a teacher to strictly teach AP classes, so that can be an issue. Students who struggle with content are more likely to succeed with a teacher who can read that struggle as it is happening, as opposed to a teacher who has to be told the student is not grasping what is being taught. I have found that the most effective teachers tend to be very good at continual, almost subconscious level, informal assessment.
We’ve had teachers on here that, while they had no diagnosis, I would not be shocked at all if they said they just found out they were on the spectrum. I’m thinking of one in particular whose lack of flexibility, and inability to understand why their grading was problematic, ended up resulting in them losing their job, despite being someone who actually taught the students a lot of content to a very high and very deep level. This teacher had high test scores but in the end lost a job at a high performing school because the low grades hurt students’ college acceptance and scholarship rates. Then ended up quitting their next job at a struggling school midyear, because they got in trouble for literally failing all but one or two students. I really do wish that teacher had considered teaching at the adult level because they were very passionate about teaching, highly committed to their students’ best interest, highly content competent, and taught a difficult subject well. They just didn’t have the social skills set to be able to successfully teach in a public K-12 setting, which does matter.
I suppose it’s unfair to automatically dismiss someone with autism as a potential K-12 teacher but the reality is the disorder creates deficiencies in some of the innate skills most needed to effectively do the job.
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