Published on 12, July, 2020
I am currently finishing a teacher training secondary course (PGCE Secondary Music) in 3 weeks time and I am terrified, I want to teach music and have signed myself up to a school to get me through the NQT year in a brand new area of the UK. But I would like advice on the following. How do I and how did you cope through school? are you doing ok and any advice on ways to prevent full meltdown? is there any point teachers with autism teaching long term as we think it'll make a difference? I would like to know these things, as I do not know any other teachers with autism personally without going on international forums and getting the "every teacher is on the spectrum" speech from someone who doesn't have it here... I love to teach but I feel schools won't like me and I'm making long term plans to get out of education after NQT and into something more friendly. Or not in the UK.
Many Thanks!
Hello!
I left teaching in December after being a secondary school teacher for 10 years. I ended up spending most of my teaching career teaching SEN, primarily children on the spectrum. There was a lot I loved about teaching - mainly the children. However, there was plenty that I found very hard to deal with. Schools are extremely bureaucratic and hierarchical places - this was very difficult for me as I don’t really get hierarchy and I found the bureaucracy very frustrating. I am painfully preoccupied with efficiency and things being logical and evidenced-based - there isn’t a lot of that in schools. Things came to a head when I moved into management - I was very respected by my colleagues but the social manoeuvring required in management is simply something I am not capable of. I had many run ins with colleagues in the management team who made decisions based on their ‘gut’ rather than on best practice. This was particularly upsetting when it involved ‘my’ children who, being autistic, did not behave in ways that my neurotypical colleagues could/wanted to take the time to understand. Despite these run ins, I was about to being given a promotion into senior management. The idea filled me full of dread. I had what I now realised was an autistic burn out and had a panic attack at school. I could not continue the way I was. I took a £10k paycut to very regretfully leave teaching. I have not looked back. I am MUCH happier and much more functional now working for a charity with colleagues that understand my ASD. I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear but that was my experience of teaching. I do not regret the years I spent because of the wonderful young people I got to work with and the impact I had on their lives, but I would not go back.