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I have issues with social reciprocity and can get defensive easily, but what you're describing would give someone problems with any career, so I could just as easily go to any forum and ask people about my issues and knowing me only from what I post online anyone could say I should choose another profession. I gather it is natural for people to claim anyone with problems outside of what is typical will have trouble with just about anything that involves dealing with other people. So it doesn't seem to me as I'm gathering a quick fix to my problems are finding another line of work and giving up everything I've worked so hard to accomplish. I'm sure if you thought hard enough, you can think of many worse teachers who have made it longer than I have.
I really would like to consider going into Juvenile law. What I worry about with teaching is that it is going to become too much paper pushing and not enough making a difference and having the ability to get a child to learn and grow. I hated grading papers. It took a lot of time that I could be doing other passionate tasks. I didn't get the sense in student teaching that there was much intellectually stimulating, or there wasn't some kind of expertise that a teacher has that is really needed such as an attorney or a psychologist. I'm not slamming teachers saying their job is to basically read from the script, but it seems as that is what it is being turned into.
While I agree that there probably is too much unnecessary paperwork in teaching there are other types of paperwork, such as grading writing assignments, student reports, quizzes and exams that are essential in the preparation that you need to continue the other "passionate tasks" such as teaching at the appropriate level and helping students learn concepts that they missed or did not grasp during your original instruction.
I strongly disagree with several of your statements. My husband was a trial attorney in a large Midwestern city. He could easily juggle 150 legal cases at one time, at varying steps from just getting the case to actually being in the trial to handling the final paperwork. He could easily remember the names and details from hundreds, if not thousands, of court decisions when needed in the middle of a trial. Yet, there is no way in heaven he could have ever been successful doing my job as a special education teacher.
No matter how high his IQ, he would never have been able to have the same "type of expertise" that I had, and needed, for my job. You can't just memorize what you need to do in a million different behavior situations or in a million different teaching situations.
Regarding "reading from a script", the "script"/teacher's edition to a textbook is just the beginning of teaching an outstanding lesson not the end. And, in some areas of teaching there are no scripts/teacher's editions. I used to teach early childhood special education, 100% of what I planned and taught was designed and created out of my own head or from materials collected from various sources. The group and individual instructions were specifically designed for those specific students. Not one teacher's edition or even one "guideline" of what to do in my classroom was ever available.
OP, perhaps you would learn more by observe a few great teachers in action and by talking to them directly rather than spending as much time on C-D criticizing teachers and teaching in general terms.
Find some teachers along the autism spectrum to interview about how they were successful as teachers. Even if they are in other parts of the country you could talk with them via Skype. Frankly, I bet that there are very few successful teachers, with autism, at least at the elementary and middle school level. I've been a teacher since 1975 and I can not even think of one teacher who I worked with who may have been autistic or even had significant autism like characteristics.
Last edited by germaine2626; 03-24-2015 at 10:12 AM..
As far as a meeting sitting down with my supervisor is concerned, it will happen eventually, but right now I'm not gong back to the town of my college until a couple more months and am completing a lot through distance learning. I already visited an old elementary school teacher of mine as we'll plan on seeing more as well as observing some teachers locally where I live. I know you were meaning to talk about how difficult teaching is and how tough it could be to maybe scare me off, but I'm actually glad it is not a scripted profession.
I have issues with social reciprocity and can get defensive easily, but what you're describing would give someone problems with any career, so I could just as easily go to any forum and ask people about my issues and knowing me only from what I post online anyone could say I should choose another profession. I gather it is natural for people to claim anyone with problems outside of what is typical will have trouble with just about anything that involves dealing with other people. So it doesn't seem to me as I'm gathering a quick fix to my problems are finding another line of work and giving up everything I've worked so hard to accomplish. I'm sure if you thought hard enough, you can think of many worse teachers who have made it longer than I have.
No, there are other professions that will put up with "quirks" because you are dealing with adults who have certain decision-making rights for themselves that minors do not. Minors are a protected class.
The whole touching thing is not just about being misconstrued as a predator. It's about respecting boundaries and other cultures. I have noticed with children with developmental delays that they can be touchy feely because they need that type of sensory communication and stimulation. This is what I sense in you. Apparently common with autistic spectrum disorders.
You need to be able to "sense" if another person wants touch and respect people from other cultures where touching is an unacceptable form of intimacy between people of different status (non-family members). Insisting on hugging or shaking someone's hand is a form of pushing yourself or "power-over." Shaking hands is a western-European custom.
When you work with children, it's never ever about your needs or your belief systems.
I have to agree that your school mislead you by delaying your practicum and making you think that you could overcome your obstacles to succeed in this profession. Please, understand that I am not calling you a bad person or an unworthy person. I feel you could be a productive member of society, but this does not sound like a suitable field for you, nor for the children who would be assigned to your care. I know you want and think that you could be helping children, but you should consider that you might also do some serious damage.
And that's your opinion. The opinion of one person who doesn't know me but knows only my disorder. Touching was not really an issue I had when student teaching. I just thought the whole stigma of it was really unfortunate. I also assure you I'm not doing any serious damage to children, so please don't make such assumptions.
You need to be able to adapt to be a teacher. Student populations change constantly, and thus strategies used do as well. But you need to be willing to change
There aren't many teachers that were successful who are on the autism spectrum for some of the same reasons I wasn't. I'm trying to defy that generalization next semester though. I realized I have to change a bit and be more flexible, but it is how far I'm going to be willing to bend is what I'll figure out next semester. I love working with the kids, and from what I have seen, they love me being there.
That's wonderful that the children enjoy your company and like being with you. For someone with Asperger's that is quite an accomplishment on your part and no doubt involved a great deal of work on your part. But as you know, the kids don't get to pick the people who will be hired. Teaching is a very saturated field in all disciplines, although I realize that is the case more so in certain parts of the US than in others. If there were a huge undersupply of teachers, the odds would be more in your favor. But with the still weak economy, underemployment, many excessed teachers willing to relocate, as well as the constant teacher mill from the alternate certification routes offered to recent non-education majors college grads, employers both private schools and public can afford to be ultra picky. In the more affluent areas of the US, especially where residents are paying high real estate taxes that predominantly consist of school tax, anyone less than super-teacher AND a family connection will have little chance of long-term employment.
Well, if I don't go into teaching, there are always going to be the big brothers/big sisters, school volunteer programs, youth baseball, summer camp, etc. That's why I'm more open to other career choices as well. In the area I'm in currently though, they really cannot afford to be ultra picky, especially when it comes to middle school mathematics. They often have interim teachers because they have a hard time finding teachers who want those positions because of the struggles with math, and also the fact that you need many college math credits as well as a state exam to be certified. Having asperger's comes with some developmental delays and youthfulness that kids really like in an adult, but some of the maturity issues make it difficult to work with other adults. Many of the other autistic teachers in the past have come across the same issues I have, such as engaging the students, and many of them have even admitted to looking for ways to get out of interacting with other teachers and school staff members, which I have to admit I have done many times. I'm working with my therapist on my aggressive methods of trying to solve problems in the work place and becoming less aggressive and more assertive, which is one of my goals to improvement of social skills before I can do another internship, and it also will be necessary to learn no matter what career I go into. So, if after my next internship they still feel I am not getting it or I feel it isn't the career for me, I have other options. The only way I have negatively impacted any children in my past teaching for college is if the children were starting to get attached emotionally and then I was gone from the school without any notice, which I fear may have had negative impacts on them, especially the ones who were so quick to confide personal problems that they said they didn't feel like talking to guidance or other teachers about.
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