Aspergers - Good Teachers ?

[Raul]

I was wondering for a long time if people with Aspergers are prone to work in an Educational Environment like schools ( with a group of 30 schoolboys ) or even bigger institutions like universities ( with almost 100 students in an amphitheater looking at you and listening ).
For me as a social fobic this thought might be frightening but I do follow some courses in my university, alongside my engineering studies, for becoming a teacher. There are certain qualities that a person should have to properly teach like :
• patience ( when you work with children there is a lot required )
• perseverance ( in long problem solving its vital )
• rectitude ( being always correct with the evaluation gives the students an honest image of themselves )
• the ability to explain using analogies ( that's very helpful because students will make easier connections to notions they allready know )
• etc ( you can add more if you know other capacities )
So next year I will have to make my practice period for 2 weeks and I am not sure how I will handle the situation. At the theoretical part I scored very well but I am not sure about how I will apply all the concepts I learned so far considering the different circumstances that can suddenly appear during the class. For an anxious person its very likely to get blocked during such an impetus.
I want to hear your opinions about this topic, and maybe some good advice if its possible please. Thank you !

 

[Ylva]

John Nettleship was a science teacher and an undiagnosed Aspie, and he was so good he became both a hero and an anti-hero in the children's books of one of his less bright students.

Not that it proves anything, but it's interesting nonetheless.

 

[Raul]

I looked him up and found out some interesting information about John Nettleship. He seemed to be a severe teacher type like. One of his pupils Joanne Rowling stated that the character Snape from the best selling novel Harry Potter assembled many of her teachers characteristics, reffering to Nettleship directly. I didnt know that he might have Aspergers.
As for me, I don't identify myself with the fictive professor Severus Snape.I am more like the soft teacher type even if I tend to be severe in certain situations.

 

[Ylva]

Heh. Even here, in the caricature of the caricature, he's got literalism. Obviously Harry meant "why isn't Lupin here?", which Severus seemed to realise after the initial answer.

 

[rache86]

I'm a teacher and I have aspergers. I think as long as you know your own limitations and know when to ask for help in areas where you have difficulties, you can be very successful. I think a structured environment such as school is excellent for aspies. Everything is very clear cut and regulated by rules and times which is great.

 

[Raul]

I think a structured environment such as school is excellent for aspies.

Yes I agree with you here. We prefer a certain routine in our lives. If major changes show up in my daily schedule I am not sure how capable I am to handle these new situations, with great difficulties perhaps.
Teaching is a second option for me of course, I place priority on my engineering studies. However at a certain age if I retire from my work I can always choose to become a teacher.
Thanks for answering my post.

 

[SyAn]

I have been a teacher too, then I moved on to become a Special Ed. Teacher, taught children and adults in many different subjects and at all levels of ability.

I think one of the most important things about being a good teacher is to be fascinated by learning and excited about passing on knowledge and skills. I was told that when I teach I am so excited that my students can't help themselves and become excited too

 

[Progster]

(copied and pasted from another thread, because I thought it would be useful here, too)

Yes, I teach. I'm a private language tutor. I used to work in private language schools teaching EFL, and once in a state school, but I ran into a whole load of problems. I once worked in a kindergarten too, and I was told by the head teacher that I didn't have it in me because I can't connect with the kids. Actually, I can get on well with kids in ones or twos, but a whole classroom is a whole different story.

I wrote quite extensively about my experiences as a teacher on another ASD forum, so I hope you don't mind if I copy and paste from there - it would take me quite a while to write it all out again:

"I think that Aspies can be very good teachers, but the nature of the work and the classroom environment can be very stressful. I am a teacher of English as a foreign language. I worked for many years in private language schools in two different countries, and once in a kindergarten and once in a state school. I taught mainly children in groups of up to 15, but also adults. I now do private individual tuition only.

When I was teaching in the schools, I found the job very stressful, suffered a burnout and had to stop teaching. These were my main difficulties:

- classroom management / discipline. I was too hesitant and indecisive and had a low presence in the classroom. I was slow to pick up on things going on in the classroom. The kids picked up on it and exploited it.

- having to interact or talk for long periods of time with students: groups with large numbers of students: exausting!! Difficult to keep the students engaged and attentive. Didn't connect with students.

- noisy students and background noise. I was often unable to hear individual students over the noise and was easily distracted. I couldn't keep track of everything going on. I didn't have a problem with the lighting but others might.

- Staffroom politics and social expectations. I didn't fit in, was exhausted, spent my lunch breaks in the library.

- sudden changes to timetable - difficult to cope with, made me stressed and anxious. Also, changes from one lesson or group to another without a break were too much.

- planning and organization, extra-curricular activities, marking, etc, lack of framework. I was told I had X number of students and that I had to create a course and find materials for them, and then present a written course yearly plan. I found this too much at once and barely coped, I had to be helped a lot with this, which is ok at the very beginning, but at some point they expect you to manage on your own, but I still struggled.

- being observed. Way too stressful, I really couldn't handle this at all.

However, a lot of these difficulties are to do with the school and classroom environment, and not the actual teaching, so if you can work in an environment in which the conditions which create the problems are eliminated, for example background noise at a minimum, lighting down low, then you might not face so many difficulites. Also, a smaller school or private school will have smaller groups and be less demanding.

I still teach, but only individual private one-to-one tuition. That way I can teach in my own environment, at home, make my own timetable, choose my own materials, I don't have the discipline and interaction difficulties I had with the groups, I work for myself so no staffroom politics. Also, a teacher who is teaching a subject which is a special interest makes a very enthusiastic teacher who can more easily motivate and inspire his or her students, and those kind of teachers are the best ones, not the ones who are just teaching to take home their monthly salary but have no enthusiasm or inspiration."

 

[NTgirl4276]

So next year I will have to make my practice period for 2 weeks and I am not sure how I will handle the situation. At the theoretical part I scored very well but I am not sure about how I will apply all the concepts I learned so far considering the different circumstances that can suddenly appear during the class. For an anxious person its very likely to get blocked during such an impetus. I want to hear your opinions about this topic, and maybe some good advice if its possible please. Thank you !

I'm not an Aspie, but I've been teaching in a university environment for over four years. If you'd like to talk about possible scenarios that are likely to come up in the teaching setting, I can go on and on about my firsthand experiences. You can PM me, if you'd like!