any teachers on here?

Hello again!

1) I was a teacher for ten years. Bottom line is that my primary reason for leaving was mostly due to pay. There were a myriad of other issues, though.

2) The biggest strategy that helped me was preparing my lessons very well and rehearsing exactly what I would be teaching ahead of time, even considering what questions may be asked. This became easier over time as I taught the same classes over again each year with minimal changes. I was scripting my conversations well before I knew I was Autistic. I just guessed that every teacher does it to the same extent I had to.

3) I got my diagnosis near the end of my tenure, so my employer was unaware. They did know that I was a little quirky, though, and I luckily had an understanding administrator that was very patient with me turning in grades slowly. Unlike POw3rPlut0, I was fortunate to have great coworkers in general. That made leaving very hard.

4) Thankfully I never had to deal with parents since I was a university professor. I can’t imagine how difficult that can be.

Honestly? My opinion? For Autism to work in the classroom you need two things: Incredible interest in your subjects and a fantastic support system in your coworkers. If you have both of those, I’d say it is worth trying to stay in the field if you can. Otherwise, I stick to my advice on your previous post that you might surprise yourself with being able to handle other occupations.

Hi,

I was a teacher for 25 years and struggled all most every single day. However I'm happy to report that that was not with any of my students but always with my colleagues and management. Well maybe a couple of more unique students............including......my stalker, but thats a whole different story. 

I started in FE in 1995 and worked with adults who wanted to learn computers for work and personal need.  The European funding was secure and the job was very rewarding, especially helping impoverished and marginalised students get qualifications that opened up better opportunities in work and enhanced their home lives.

I was too organised, too methodical and too fixated on perfect paperwork.  Whilst finding any social interactions with colleagues confusing and bewildering.  Fortunately, I was able to cultivate my own classroom and just concentrated on that perfect paperwork, including being very creative with resources for students and having a well organised and systematic classroom. 

Unfortunately, I retrained to be a secondary teacher in 2008 in order to move with my long term girlfriend to London so she could complete her PhD.

It went downhill from there and I was unable to pass my probationary year at an infamous comprehensive. I had the breakdown of all breakdowns. 

Within a year I did however, manage to secure work within the Prison Service as a tutor teaching prisoners basic business enterprise, basic skills and managing staff.

But again, my colleagues made life hell for me, but in such subtle and gaslighting ways, I had a second breakdown in my fifth year and was asked to be made redundant instead of pursuing my grievances.  Nice pay-out though. 

Again colleagues "hated" my perfectionism............................my immaculate paperwork, creative resources and extremely well organised classrooms.

I really did struggle and looking back, its a small miracle that my ASD was never identified sooner due to my obsessive neatness, tidiness, punctuality, organisational skills and exemplary paperwork. 

But total inability to even spend five minutes in a staff room.

My strategy was to isolate myself and just get on with my job for the students, albeit adults, but not even with my rose-tinted classes about teaching as a whole, dealing with colleagues is the worst aspect.

They replicate the worst aspects of school as teachers; if they were bullies at school, they are bullies as teachers.  If they were jocks at school, they are jocks as teachers.  And if they sailed through school, they sailed through teaching, and played all the petty politics blah blah blah.

I was very fortunate in being able to work with adults, but all the other issues such as curriculum changes, tests and examinations are the same, as well as the drive to get funding for courses, as well as the drive for consistent high success rates, is still the same vicious circle.

I'm jaded, cynical and torn between having loved my job, and also hated half of it.

Again, I know it doesn't help, but the current system needs a through overhaul, so students can reach their potential and not just be a tick box on the exam success rate.

If i had known about my ASD yes it would have helped me immensely, but was the FE or secondary system ready, probably not. 

I was a teacher for many years. I worked with autistic children for most of it. I didn't know I was autistic at the time I took the job, but I enjoyed it. Have you thought about SEN teaching?

I'm a retired secondary school teacher. 

I qualified late in life before I knew I was autistic. I always have had poor mental health, but determination to teach and love of my subject enabled me to struggle through the school year. Eventually, I asked myself if I could see myself doing the job for the next 20 years and the answer was no. I couldn't bear the thought of living with constant stress and anxiety over my work, never getting away from it even on weekends. Class behaviour management was a huge issue in my school and I didn't have any strategies that fully worked for that or for myself to manage my stress. I always scripted conversations for meetings with parents. Some of them didn't seem to hear or understand what I was talking about and they had their own questions and responses which often didn't relate to the points I was making, so it was very stressful.

I just continued to struggle until I was diagnosed with cancer and had to take time off from work. I spent several weeks at a time over two years as an in patient and knew I could never return to teaching so I didn't go back and I don't regret it. 

Of course I missed the salary and I miss not having a sizeable teacher's pension, but better quality of life was a no brainer. I regret that I didn't know how being autistic led to my struggles and perhaps I could have coped better if I had known I was autistic and disclosed ASD because adjustments might have been put in place. Yet, there is consolation in knowing I did the best I could at the time and couldn't continue with such constant high level anxiety, worry and lack of life outside of school because of  constant worry. I love studying so I returned to university to gain higher level qualifications and now I spend my days filled with things that make me content. 

If you are considering disclosing ASD, be very careful. Not all employers are sympathetic, even though the law is clear about reasonable adjustments. Some people have found it better not to mention ASD and just to ask for something they need, e.g., they need x or y reasonable adjustments because they find it easier to communicate in such and such a way/they need quiet space etc.

I'm sorry that this isn't much help to you. I just wanted you to know that you aren't on your own and I hope you make the right decision for you. I don't think teaching is incompatible for all autistic people but it is for some.