Are you an autistic teacher?

I've been a teacher for five years and I think I have ASD. I've been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and my doctor has tried a few different antidepressants but I haven't had any luck, and I think there is something more. I have always felt different than others, find it hard to make friends, and have never had a romantic relationship, but teaching has made me question a lot more about myself and has made me wonder if I had ASD. 

I am a fully trained teacher with a specialization in Art (I have a bachelor of fine arts) and teach at a k-12 school. For 3 years I was the art teacher for every grade and loved it, until we got a new admin who took my classroom away, then switched me to teaching from a cart, and then the DAY BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED this year she switched me to a homeroom teacher and High School teacher. Second semester she put me back to half teaching art, but no longer with the whole school, and I'm also teaching English, social studies, and health for one grade, and teaching high school courses as well. It's been really hard adapting and I've gotten no support from my admin. 

Constant change of schedules, courses, classes, losing classrooms, moving to an art cart...etc have been really hard for me. Not to mentjon all the stress of covid changes at school. I suffer from burnout often, and have had to take many days off this last year for my mental health. I know these changes have been hard fo my coworkers as well, but I feel like I haven't been dealing with it as well as they have. This has really made me question if I have asd. 

I find it really hard to do the paper work involved with teaching like yearly planning, lesson plans, and marking because I think they are useless and they don't help me in the classroom. My admin this year was insane about planning and told me if I didn't do themed, I wasn't doing my job or being a good teacher. This caused me and other staff so much stress over something so pointless, but again I feel like I don't handle it as well as other coworkers have.

Now for the good:

After 4 years in the same school the students know me and they know I am there for them, and that I'm trying my best to teach them, care for them, and help them. I can easily read their emotions and communicate effectively even though English is their second language and I don't speak their first language at all. We are from totally different cultures and generations but I care and they know. 

I ended up helpg to start and run the local food bank, and get a food program into the school. This all means though that's I'm trying to do too many things and again, burn out. Compassion fatigue. 

I love the research and lesson planning part of teaching, and I love hanging out with kids and teens all day. 

Idk if teaching is for you, or for me long time. I feel like I care too much and get burnt out too much for the current way schools are run. I really don't know how long I can keep this up. 

Hello,

I am 74 and only recently realised I am autistic, I have suffered 70 years of hell and autism is the only key to unlock my life's experiences.  I am currently waiting to be assessed.

In 1986 I applied to be a Instructional Officer with the Skills Training Agency at Portsmouth.  After two exceedingly hard assessments I was accepted and undertook their training course, amazingly I fitted the role without any hiccups.  I then took over at Portsmouth Skill Centre teaching Industrial Electronics to adults.  This was a 38 week course using what was known as accelerated training to move people from nil knowledge to Level 2 C&G 224 in electronics.

I loved it and found that a semi formal relationship with each course was best, calling each other Mr. sadly we never had any ladies join.  This instilled some basic respect for each other, but it did not prevent the fun we all had.  I could empathise and communicate very easily with the students, delivery of the subject matter was straight forward and I thought I was part of a theatre rather than a grumpy master and "slaves".

I created more projects for the groups to expand their skills and a weekly test on a Friday morning.  This instilled some acceptance of tests as a natural event, because I made it fun on a Monday to review it.  When it came to the C&G exams they were all better equipped to sit and work on their papers, that is not to say there weren't a few of them in the toilet some time before the start!  Students from my mate's class Radio & TV had a similar exam for their C&G and they were definitely disadvantaged by not exploring exam processes.

The problem with generating more is the following paperwork maintenance, marking all day Saturday for instance.  During my time in the civil service I took more qualifications to head up towards full teacher status. 

It was very rewarding to change peoples lives completely, I assisted them in doing c.v.'s etc and moving into full time employment, so in a year they had gone from dole queue to jobs and stability.

Unfortunately the government in its wisdom thought the Centres were a waste of tax payers money and shut the lot.  The U.K. lost the finest training organisation in the world.  You could learn any skill you wanted, you needed to make the effort to live where the training was available, in Radio & TV, a chap came up from Cornwall to study, living in a caravan because there was no Radio & TV in his area.  On our site you could learn bricklaying, hairdressing, white goods maintenance, welding, milling, turning, car bodywork, carpentry, plant maintenance, car mechanics, h.g.v. maintenance as well as the two electronics topics I have mentioned.  The other day I discovered the man that cuts my hair was trained at Bristol S.C. he is very good and I knew that before he revealed his training.

So in in 1990 I was thrust into commercial training and worked freelance until 1992 when I obtained a full time position as an Electronics Tutor with Portsmouth Itec.  Again, I did not have any issues delivering the topic, this time the students were 16 years old straight from school.  The ethos there was to be budy, budy, on first names, which in my opinion did not work on any level.  There was no respect from the students and they did not come to grips with the reality of a working life, they had two years to gain qualifications and many of them were pushed through by the management's needs rather than expert skill.  I continued my studies and eventually gained a Cert Ed from Portsmouth Uni.  Redundancy loomed again when Portsmouth City Council dumped the Itec in 1997.

During this period I had joined the Adult Literacy Basic Skills Unit in Portsmouth (ALBSU) and took their qualifications in teaching.  I taught people with literacy issues some basic skills in computing, they loved it and so did I.  I qualified as a teacher of English because there was no relevant option and I had to be qualified in something.  The students were all ages and all educationally challenged, it was the best Wednesday evenings ever.  ALBSU was again dumped by the establishment and given over to colleges to provide the service, so I became a college lecturer, it was enjoyable I had no problems with teaching and the students, only with the management and we parted company.

So in 1997 I started work with an engineering training organisation, which I will not name to protect the guilty, it was very hard word as a manager trying to pull together a failing department and deliver the education needed by apprentices in various companies.  I had no problem with the hard work required because I work hard naturally, the unit I managed slowly came together and I managed to survive some intense assessment for a quality qualification the company needed.  However the upper management were bullies and their actions towards me lead to my total meltdown on Friday 13th November 1998.

I have never worked since, I did engage in thereaputic work to overcome my mental health problems and became a tree feller.  The thing that is now annoying me is, the medics pulling my head apart had all they needed to see I was autistic but never made the connection.  It may have changed they way I have been treated since.  To sum it up, as an autistic person I loved education and teaching, I found it difficult to be an academic chasing qualifications because of ADHD and Autism, schooling was a nightmare but that is another more harrowing story.

Education is not for many autistic people, even those like me on a high function rating, during your practical experience on training courses think long and hard about how you fit, how do your wiring traits match the work load you face and do not underestimate the paperwork load, today all jobs are about proving you have done the job rather than did you really do it.  It wrecks the careers that people really love to do, take nursing, how much actual nursing takes place and how much is paperwork saying it is done.

Have a look at first-rate-teachers.org and download their papers, it offers what you need to do a good job.

Thank you for your contribution. Yes the paperwork is heavy but I think it's a trade-off - I feel I fit in very well where I work and enjoy the teaching side of things. Every job has it's pros and cons.

Sorry you ended your career the way you did. I think it's telling you speak better of the students than you do of your managers. I don't think I would ever want to be a manager. It was pretty much offered to me a few years ago (sort of "supervisor" level). I've worked at this level in retail before but that s different. I don't want to be responsible for other staff and having to attend meetings etc would be too much of a load. I feel colleagues look at you differently when you become a manager and I also like being on the periphery.

Thank you for your contribution. Yes the paperwork is heavy but I think it's a trade-off - I feel I fit in very well where I work and enjoy the teaching side of things. Every job has it's pros and cons.

Sorry you ended your career the way you did. I think it's telling you speak better of the students than you do of your managers. I don't think I would ever want to be a manager. It was pretty much offered to me a few years ago (sort of "supervisor" level). I've worked at this level in retail before but that s different. I don't want to be responsible for other staff and having to attend meetings etc would be too much of a load. I feel colleagues look at you differently when you become a manager and I also like being on the periphery.

Business meetings, label "hell on earth", I am not socially competent so I do not engage with others, they seem to sense I am out of step and I become the "elephant in the room".

As to the business side of a meeting, everyone has an axe to grind and my logic and balance always upsets those who have an emotional attachment, so out of favour again.

My wiring is devoid of emotional attachment and I just get on with the job, empathetic yes, sympathy no.  It has never made any sense to me that I was a great teacher but I do not relate to people, I relate to animals and machines, how does that work?  I can only think I was an actor on a stage delivering a performance.