Aspies as teachers?

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Hi, I am new to this forum. My six year old has been referred by his pediatrician for testing for AS and he also suggested that I get tested. I wasn't actually surprised at being referred; I have known since I was about 5 that I "think differently" and that it takes conscious effort for me to interact in a socially appropriate way in unfamiliar groups.
My question is "How many people on this forum are involved in being teachers, professors or trainers?"

I teach political science at the university level, and have found that I love it. I get to talk about something I am passionately interested in, and my obsession is actually good for my career advancement. I have had other jobs (many) but only those where I was teaching others have felt rewarding. I noticed as I read various comments on several boards that there were other college professors commenting, and wondered if this was related to AS in terms of finding a career that rewards single subject obsessiveness. Any thoughts?

I considered going into teaching - I seem to want to pursue careers in areas where I see there is need for improvement, at the time I was struggling a lot with teachers who didn't understand me, also at the time my special interest was religious studies so teaching the subject was the only real career path using that special interest. I went into teacher training and was teaching assistant for special needs classes for a while, but I found it was not for me - it involves too much patience, something I'm seriously lacking (although I do enjoy training).

Otherwise teaching is a good example of how a special interest can bring you to a rewarding career, I believe it is an AS/ASD thing to pursue a career that allows us to embrace out special interest...it's one example of why AS/ASD people can be a benefit in the work place.

The only experience in teaching I have is as a martial arts instructor, and people tell me that I do a good job. They usually praise my ability to look for details and giving precise instructions how to improve mistakes. I work really well in conjunction with another teacher (a rare example of synergy I developed) who looks more after the overall form. I don't know if I'd judge myself a good teacher or not, but I do have the impression that if I know that I am working in a closed environment and the limits of the information I have to submit to students, I work rather efficiently. The same does not hold true for example when I try to instruct students at college. I often get asked for help from new students, because I do have a reputation of knowing alot. If I really prepare my stuff, it kinda works, but I cannot improvise. I think it stems from the same source as the problems with passing exams in a quality I deem satisfactory: I know the stuff down to the last detail, but don't know what part of information I am asked to reproduce.

I am a teacher of the Alexander Technique,
I have taught in Adult Education,
health clubs, spiritual retreats,
but mostly on a one to one basis.

Many of us are informally teachers/educators, I believe.

But as far as occupation goes, I have considered perhaps becoming a university professor. I am still in secondary school, so I still have an abundance of time to make a decision.
I wouldn't fare to well as a teacher for any lower level of education, because you're expected to have a personal relationships with at least most of the students. God, I can't imagine ever being a primary school teacher.

Teaching Political science at a Post-Secondary Level is actually one of my goals. The psychologist that diagnosed me said that anyone with AS should consider the (post-secondary) education field. The best thing any of us can do is to find a way to turn our special interests into cash. If it is a career that does not require tremendous social skills, go for it. Teaching at Post-secondary level means that you will be in a room with upwards of 100 other people, but you will be talking about what your interested in. Just some food for thought.

My mom is a teacher and she has AS, but I'm going to be a physicist
I wouldn't like to teach kids or teens

I once thought about I should be one but I saw online they don't seem to get freedom in their personal life because they get fired for their past careers or what they do in their personal lives. So forget it.

I'm actually a Primary School Teacher here in Spain and I can't imagine myself doing any other kind of job, it's very rewarding to me. Nevertheless, I may have minor problems -not a big deal- while improvising or when having to coordinate some lessons with other teachers of the same level, this latter having much to do on whether I get on well or not with that particular person.

I'm a primary school teacher and love it. Tried secondary for a term, and it was a disaster. But primary to me is much easier. I suppose I'm really lucky to work with a supportive boss and the Teaching Assistant in my class is brill- her strengths are my weaknesses, and we have an unspoken agreement that she sorts out all of the emotional/social stuff from the children that I can't do. It works really well. She also tries to understand what AS is and how it affects me, and tries to do anything she can to help. She also manages to explain things to me so I understand things, even when I ask random questions.
I'm glad I work with 7 year olds though- any younger than 5 or older than 9 and I think I'd really struggle.

I must admit, most days something happens that really throws me, especially when things have to change at the last minute which tends to happen a lot. And it doesn't help me that most people don't know about my AS and so end up dumping things on me. I'm just getting better at developing my coping strategies... though often that involves crying at some point during the day on several days in the week.

I was told by my doctor that I was probably in the most stressful and unsuitable job possible for an aspie: primary school, difficult area, difficult children with severe special needs/behaviour problems, tough school with big turnover of staff and children...

I've worked with children for ten year informally, including teaching Sunday School for various ages, which I will soon be retiring from for a while) and I have also worked with children for seven years for pay though not as a teacher. I am slowly taking classes to became a Preschool Teacher's helper though. I should have enough units by the end of next year. I was diagnosed last July.

I've taught Sunday School and have also been a private music teacher (piano, flute and voice). And also a teaching assistant at a film school.

I've thought about teaching as a career, but if I taught I would want it to be at the university level because, like the OP, I would want to feel like I was really sharing my special interests, and it's harder to do that with young children than it is with adults.

Teaching is the last job I would want to do. It would be social suicide for someone who has a lack of stable relationship history with the opposite sex - which is my case.

I can honestly say I have never wanted to teach a group younger than juniors or seniors in high school. I do lack patience with the emotional drama of preteens, and generally cannot take the noise of large groups of young children. I am currently homeschooling my son, which is challenging to manage my short attention span and his at the same time. Luckily, teaching him one on one is not too bad, and since we have similar limitations it seems to work well.
The idea of having 20 or 30 six year olds in one room with me all day, well, that is my idea of a surefire way to end up insane in less than a week! Teaching college works well for me, I don't think anything younger would work. I cannot imagine co-teaching. I don't know how I would manage that. I don't work from lesson plans because I have a nearly photographic memory. I am told by my students that they like the quirky way I pull facts from diverse sources to ilustrate connections between historical texts and modern day events. I encourage class participation, and often a question from a student will lead us through a somewhat crazy sounding path that leads us back to the text they are reading. I have had to learn to edit the amount of information I throw at them, and remind myself to check and make sure they are following my train of thought or I get a lot of really weird looks, but no one sleeps in my class for fear of missing something!

I taught my logic class for several weeks in 1975 one time after one of my classmates chased the teacher off in tears and she quit. The class then asked me to becme their teacher until the school could hire someone new. I have also spent a lot of time tutoring people one on one because people find my explanations to be simple and easy to understand. However I have never formally been a teacher.

My suspected HFA friend is a math and chem teacher by profession. He quit teaching after about a decade, and went for computer jobs, programming, system administration, for reasons unknown - to him.