Education advice

[Arno]

Hello, I have a question.

I am 16 so I almost need to choice what i'm going to choice.

I went down a long list to make these 3 the final one's.

 

A brief info about me:

I'm a little shy, but I love to help people, I am very correct, every rule (even my own one's) is holy, I can't break them, if I do, my mood switches to scared, and I begin to cry(I know this is strange). At the moment i'm following business economics. My grades are ok, but I don't do much for school. I want to, but I have a good memory, so I can remember easily, so I know what the previous class of that subject was about . I have a low self confidence, so i'm always breaking my self down. I also have a negative sight about people(sorry for that) but I don't believe that any person will be trust worthy (100%) so I only tell some things to people.

 

 

This are the 3 final one's with reasons why I think I would be a good teacher:

Teacher: I would become a math and ICT teacher, I found that's the best combination because i'm a atheist, so I believe in science(math) and the structure of ICT is wonderfull, if you do something wrong, then you did something wrong, its not plausible that it will run 100%.

 

Graphics Designer: Well, why I want to become this, is actually to impress the people, because I am not really good in anything particular my class mates, only need me if there is something wrong, and they can't answer it, so I need to "teach" them how to. I love to help them, but it goes pretty far, making a long term task, and then a friend asked me before the due date, to put his name on the paper, I did it, but the teacher saw it.

 

Shrink: I love helping people, I had alot of problems, well, I still have them, and I would tell my own experience's and my solutions, I would "specialize" me in ASD and ADHD, so that I would know how I could help them and really feel the pain and difficulty's they have, that I sometimes also being trough, and then I would give them my solution to handle that and we would adjust it to his needs.

 

Well,

I think that was all, could you be so kind to help me choose?

 

For me its important, I like to make a future plan, how much I'm going to earn and then make a financial plan for that, and such....

 

 

Well, Thanks

 

Arno

[Lyndalou]

Hi Arno

 

You sound quite worried about what the future may hold but it is normal to be apprehensive about making very big decisions. Trying to make plans for the future is not an easy thing because you can't see into the future and see how it will work out!

 

It might be helpful to think about what you are good at or where your strengths lie. Do your strengths lie in Maths/IT or are you good at Graphic Design? I find your reasons for being a maths teacher or a graphic designer a bit different to what the realities of those professions might be, if I have to be honest! However, if you are good at those subjects tthen this would be what you would build on. Your personal satisfaction and gaining self-esteem are very important but it is very competitive in the workplace and the reasons you give about impressing people might actually not help in you in securing those types of careers. You also have to be quite careful about voicing certain beliefs in the workplace.

 

But....before you have a career you will have to train. If you would like to get into a field of work where you help people there are many careers where you would be able to do this. If you want to help others with ASD's you could be a social worker, a support worker, work within a work enterprise scheme etc. As a professional working within mental health you would come up against all sorts of people with all sorts of problems. You would need to learn about people and what makes them tick before you get to the stage of being a psychiatrist or something similar and you can learn about people simply by working in a shop or by doing voluntary work or by going to college! You learn a lot just by the experience of living. Some experiences are good, some bad but if you put your mind to it you can learn from all of life's experiences.

 

Try not to worry too much about what your future holds, how much you will earn etc. Life has a habit of taking you in directions you never expected.

 

Lynda

Edited September 23, 2012 by Lyndalou

[Arno]

Hi Arno

 

You sound quite worried about what the future may hold but it is normal to be apprehensive about making very big decisions. Trying to make plans for the future is not an easy thing because you can't see into the future and see how it will work out!

 

It might be helpful to think about what you are good at or where your strengths lie. Do your strengths lie in Maths/IT or are you good at Graphic Design? I find your reasons for being a maths teacher or a graphic designer a bit different to what the realities of those professions might be, if I have to be honest! However, if you are good at those subjects tthen this would be what you would build on. Your personal satisfaction and gaining self-esteem are very important but it is very competitive in the workplace and the reasons you give about impressing people might actually not help in you in securing those types of careers. You also have to be quite careful about voicing certain beliefs in the workplace.

 

But....before you have a career you will have to train. If you would like to get into a field of work where you help people there are many careers where you would be able to do this. If you want to help others with ASD's you could be a social worker, a support worker, work within a work enterprise scheme etc. As a professional working within mental health you would come up against all sorts of people with all sorts of problems. You would need to learn about people and what makes them tick before you get to the stage of being a psychiatrist or something similar and you can learn about people simply by working in a shop or by doing voluntary work or by going to college! You learn a lot just by the experience of living. Some experiences are good, some bad but if you put your mind to it you can learn from all of life's experiences.

 

Try not to worry too much about what your future holds, how much you will earn etc. Life has a habit of taking you in directions you never expected.

 

Lynda

 

Thanks for the awnser, the problem is, I can't stop thinking about what the future will hold, i'm good in technology, but I don't want to work in such world, I want to help people that are experiencing problems. I am going to the shrink, but I found that she doesn't now how live is as a ASD. She understands alot, but can't feel the pain and fear I have, I think I could help the people as shrink, because I also have alot of problems in school, and I would give them my solutions and my foundings on how people react, The only problem is that I find ASD(for me) a disease, not a gift, it is really hard for me to find my role in school, most of the time i'm just alone, I can't blame my class, they do their best, but i'm just to scared to talk to them.

So I could tell the person that has problems, there is a solution, the only problem is that I didn't found it yet, but i'm still searching, when I do, I will try to help others with my solutions, and listen on how they interpret the solution and understand them.

[Shnoing]

If you want to go into psychotherapy as a professional, you should be emotionally stable yourself (which you are not, according to what you say yourself). You would suffer from burn-out in a very short time and be unable to a.) help yourself and b.) help others.

 

ASD itself does not prevent you from that line of work, but your additional issues do.

 

About becoming a teacher: how do you feel when doing a presentation in front of a class AND no one is there who tells them to shut up and listen - could you handle that?

 

Just as some food for thoughts ...

Edited September 29, 2012 by Shnoing

[Willow-Tree]

As a 20 year old with Aspergers, who since she was 16 knew she wanted to be a Graphic Designer, and now is a Graphic Designer, I would obviously tell you that that's best - however, I will go through all 3 of your choices and give my opinions

 

Teacher: From a very young age I wanted to be a teacher, however, as I got older and my AS really kicked in, I shied away from it because of the huge educational commitment. I love learning and I loved school, I just didn't love the people and the strict time scales. I wanted to be alone and to learn when I felt okay, not all the time and with 20 or so other people ruining it for me. I knew that I was becoming more and more detached from school and in the end I did 'quit'. And whilst university would have been a different environment, I still had to do A Levels, and I didn't want to be in a very similar school setting, with most of the same people I'd been with for years.

 

Beyond that aspect, I don't think I could get up every day and go to work at the same time to teach a bunch of teens who probably don't want to be there. And as I'm not very confrontational, I don't think I could handle those who misbehave, and then I would just end up being bullied by my students. Plus, the other teachers who you are with every day will probably be quite social types and, for me, I don't think I could get on with them, day in day out. Finally, the pay is, to an extent, capped - at whatever the government decide, and that could also be cut whenever they feel like it as well - so potential to be promoted and get pay rises - pretty limited.

 

Graphic Designer: Whilst you can get proper qualifications for this, it's not vital that you do. And, you can do various courses outside of places like school and university, just at local colleges etc. The other bonus, is if you do it right, you can work from home to do this, which is perfect, for me at least!. And most of the interaction between you and another person can be done, without people thinking it's odd, via email. If you build yourself a solid portfolio of work, you can get a job - they will hire you because of what they can see you are capable of, rather than taking someone on who only has a degree and no portfolio. There are a lot of jobs which require a degree, but then, there are plenty that don't.

 

If you did get a job, the types of people you would socialize with, I have found, are more like minded. Strictly speaking, the atmosphere in that kind of job won't be as formal as it would be at a school as a teacher. Which would be less stressful. And with pay, you can progress a little more within a job than you could as a teacher, but more than that, you can 'shop around' to find somewhere with higher pay, each time you feel you need more, if you don't feel you could get it where you are. But more importantly if you did it right and you were successfully working from home/expanded into a business you manage, your pay isn't capped at all, you decide when you work and how much you charge. It isn't easy, I'm not going to pretend I make anywhere near enough money to support anything, but at times, I was doing pretty good!

 

Shrink: Whilst this is something that I had thought about being/still do consider, I was again, put off by the huge educational commitment, maybe even more so than for a teacher, if you were to specialize. I myself, would want to deal with children, as I've always found I get on well with them (I did a short placement in a nursery and the kids loved me, and I have an overwhelming urge to keep them safe). But, this is a better option in my mind than being a teacher. Reasons being because; you can do pretty relevant degrees to this with the Open University, so you can do it in your own time, from home, and still get a student loan for it. Once you are qualified, your hours are more flexible than being a teacher, I think. In terms of pay, this is probably the best, especially if you specialize in something. And the people you would see would probably be like minded, just in a less creative way to the graphic designers! However, being a shrink, everyone you know will constantly think you're just trying to analyse them!

 

It's odd that you are considering, really, the only things that I ever considered!

 

Good luck in whatever you choose,

 

-Willow