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What are things that you would do if you were to become a NT for one week?
- Thread starter carlo
- Start date
Soup
Well-Known Member
I can relate well to that, Loomis: it is a kind of Cinderella effect that abruptly wears off after a certain amount of time. I too can mimic being NT for short spurts. Fortunately because of what I do, I don't spend the day having to interact through countless meetings with other adults. My 'bosses' are the kids I teach. Kids seem to expect teachers to be a little 'off' & even those who are Nts get labeled as weird or strange by kids once they're in grade 5 & up. I do not look at all odd (to the uninitiated: another Aspie would be able to 'out' me fast).
Since they're so preoccupied with themselves & each other, they're not that focused on me as a person: what I'm teaching is their focus. In class, I involve my kids in peer teaching: they've learned that one of the best indicators of how thoroughly they have internalized a lesson is if they can teach it to or clarify it for another student who is struggling. I involve them in coming up to the board to demonstrate a strategy they have for solving a problem or a unique way of looking at it. When a student asks a particularly challenging question, I ask the class if anyone would like to try to answer it for their colleague. They know (from what I taught them) that I do NOT possess education that I show up & dole out to them: it is something we construct together as a learning community & that WE are ALL colleagues since I learn from them every day too. We make the classroom rules together (some are different to the official school rules!).
In my class there is no such thing as a dumb or obvious question: this creates an atmosphere wherein academically (or other ways) challenged students feel less afraid to speak up. I allow students to put up the hood on their hoodies (heck: I do so myself!). You CAN wear your toque in my class. Some kids feel safer & more 'supported' with their head in a cozy binding (just ask a baby!). You CAN chew gum or drink water. If you must go to the can, raise your hand & I'll let you go. No rude questions such as "Do you really really really need to go?" "Do you need to go #1 or #2?" "Why didn't you go at recess?" A kid knows when s/he has to go. They are allowed to work with a peer or 2 for many assignments but it is not an obligation. I've learned to take deep breath, treat the students with dignity & like people worthy of respect & they tend to live up to this image.
These managerial/facilitator/leadership strategies greatly mitigate my Asperger's traits in the class. Kids who feel safe & at ease are less likely to be watching me like a hawk because I'm an unsafe & untrustworthy character. So far (even with the coded troubled kids) none have abused these liberties! There are no gum wads stuck under the desks or in books because they do not have to sneak. They go to the can when they must: nobody uses it as an excuse to wander around because it is not seen as a special privilege. Since other kids are teaching too & they all look different & have differing styles, mine does not look too weird & my monotone delivery doesn't bore them comatose.
In staff meetings, I need other strategies in order to pass NT muster. These include saying little, appearing to be listening intently & taking notes, & participating in setting up the space & rearranging it. I also have stims I can do that are discrete & won't distract or attract others.
Since they're so preoccupied with themselves & each other, they're not that focused on me as a person: what I'm teaching is their focus. In class, I involve my kids in peer teaching: they've learned that one of the best indicators of how thoroughly they have internalized a lesson is if they can teach it to or clarify it for another student who is struggling. I involve them in coming up to the board to demonstrate a strategy they have for solving a problem or a unique way of looking at it. When a student asks a particularly challenging question, I ask the class if anyone would like to try to answer it for their colleague. They know (from what I taught them) that I do NOT possess education that I show up & dole out to them: it is something we construct together as a learning community & that WE are ALL colleagues since I learn from them every day too. We make the classroom rules together (some are different to the official school rules!).
In my class there is no such thing as a dumb or obvious question: this creates an atmosphere wherein academically (or other ways) challenged students feel less afraid to speak up. I allow students to put up the hood on their hoodies (heck: I do so myself!). You CAN wear your toque in my class. Some kids feel safer & more 'supported' with their head in a cozy binding (just ask a baby!). You CAN chew gum or drink water. If you must go to the can, raise your hand & I'll let you go. No rude questions such as "Do you really really really need to go?" "Do you need to go #1 or #2?" "Why didn't you go at recess?" A kid knows when s/he has to go. They are allowed to work with a peer or 2 for many assignments but it is not an obligation. I've learned to take deep breath, treat the students with dignity & like people worthy of respect & they tend to live up to this image.
These managerial/facilitator/leadership strategies greatly mitigate my Asperger's traits in the class. Kids who feel safe & at ease are less likely to be watching me like a hawk because I'm an unsafe & untrustworthy character. So far (even with the coded troubled kids) none have abused these liberties! There are no gum wads stuck under the desks or in books because they do not have to sneak. They go to the can when they must: nobody uses it as an excuse to wander around because it is not seen as a special privilege. Since other kids are teaching too & they all look different & have differing styles, mine does not look too weird & my monotone delivery doesn't bore them comatose.
In staff meetings, I need other strategies in order to pass NT muster. These include saying little, appearing to be listening intently & taking notes, & participating in setting up the space & rearranging it. I also have stims I can do that are discrete & won't distract or attract others.
Christian T
Well-Known Member
I must say Soup, I would have loved to have been a student in your class. I'll be graduating from high school in a couple of months, and right now I'm really beginning to appreciate more than ever the teachers who were as understanding, respectful, human and aware of the values of reciprocal learning from peers as you are. These teachers earn true respect from their students with their intelligence and humanity.
But, getting back to the original topic, my week as an NT would be spent having conversations with countless people at once. I would make the most of my ability to confidently interject and keep track of so many utterances and quickly grasp the subtext of what people are saying. I would also enjoy being able to understand why some of the things that I say make the NTs laugh (often they laugh when I say the most humourless things). I would pull of many colloquialisms with incredible naturalness, and I'd do my drama performance whilst easily maintaining eye contact with the audience and not getting lost in the mental processing of all the things that I have to do on stage.
Lastly, I would assertively and coherently (from an NT's perspective) express all of my passionate arguments and opinions that I have to bottle up because I'm never given the required time (I usually require more than 5 seconds) or the required attention (sometimes I pause for entire milliseconds as I'm thinking of what to say next, and then everyone stops listening to me).
But, getting back to the original topic, my week as an NT would be spent having conversations with countless people at once. I would make the most of my ability to confidently interject and keep track of so many utterances and quickly grasp the subtext of what people are saying. I would also enjoy being able to understand why some of the things that I say make the NTs laugh (often they laugh when I say the most humourless things). I would pull of many colloquialisms with incredible naturalness, and I'd do my drama performance whilst easily maintaining eye contact with the audience and not getting lost in the mental processing of all the things that I have to do on stage.
Lastly, I would assertively and coherently (from an NT's perspective) express all of my passionate arguments and opinions that I have to bottle up because I'm never given the required time (I usually require more than 5 seconds) or the required attention (sometimes I pause for entire milliseconds as I'm thinking of what to say next, and then everyone stops listening to me).
Which might be hard as is... without being an aspie.
A thing to consider and that makes it X times more difficult either way (and I should state it's from my own perspective); the lack of education makes it a nigh impossible thing to land a job. So unless I could get educated in said week AND land a job (and if you're talking about an unlimited amount of NT-ness, I guess there should be financial resources). And I guess there's a decent amount of aspies that currently lack any reasonably marketable skills on a jobmarket. So if you're not an aspie for a week... you're probably just being perceived as a severly limited NT who was too lazy or stupid to get educated... not to mention how you will have a tarnished track record for employers, since employment history is a problem.
I read a report the other day, that about 4 months of unemployment takes over a year of being employed to wipe that smudge of your CV for employers to actually consider you a motivated employee.
But I'm well aware this thread is more on a lighter note... it's just my aspieness got in the way with this one. It's not a personal attack though ^^
This and that is all.
To be more specific though I'd try and befriend more of my daughter's friends parents just to help with her friendships(she's more likely to get invited over etc if they don't think I'm the weirdo they do now, thankfully they all love my husband so she's not totally outcast)
I'd also like to volunteer at both the local animal shelter and the local disabled home, I can't do either the way I am because I know I would not cope well in either of those situations.
Drake Marino
Well-Known Member
If I were a NT for a week, I'd be super talkative in all my classes without being awkward, and I'd be Mr. Popular. I would talk so much the teacher had to tell me to shut up. I'd go out with my friends everyday during this week, and we'd laugh and have a good time, and I wouldn't feel completely out of place. I'd always have a witty comment to say during class. And if I saw someone sitting alone at lunch, I would invite them to come sit with my crew, as a decent human being would NOT leave someone to sit alone at lunch like was done to me the first semester of 6th grade. But yeah, that's about it. All this fantasizing about being a NT makes me depressed, because as much as I want that lifestyle, I doubt I'll be able to achieve it. :/
Misanthrope
Well-Known Member
be happy
atheistcanuck
Active Member
Go to a singles bar. Meet some guy, get a date, kiss him goodnight.
Find out if I'd like fruit if I didn't have a problem with the texture.
Be more talkative at lunch time with my classmates.
Find out if I'd like fruit if I didn't have a problem with the texture.
Be more talkative at lunch time with my classmates.
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