Should I come clean to students?

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Hi

I am a self-diagnosed Aspi, I am a Teacher at a Technical Collage, and should I let my students know that I am "Autistic"?

Without any knowledge of your location, culture, students, hiring practices, mobility, insurance status, etc....

The best answer is "no".

Edited to add: You have nothing to "come clean" about, you have a different neurotype.

Why would you want to tell them? If you are self diagnosed, how do you know it is correct?
I would not tell people unless I felt it was necessary and it would be my employers, not the people I work with that I would tell.

What is there to come clean about?

Omission of something that's none of their business is not the same as lying or being deceitful.

What do you expect to gain by telling them? If there's a reason they need to know, then maybe it's worth while. If not, then why?

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I agree with taking a low profile on this one. Someone being open about a diagnosis has a good chance of being alienated and ridiculed; couldn't possibly be better for the self diagnosed. Maybe even worse, because then people will think you just want to be "special". I wouldn't drop the autim bomb on this party.




Autim = autism+spectrum=sounds like atom enough to replace atom in "atom bomb", giving rise to a new term I coin:

Autim Bomb: An attempt made by a diagnosed/self-diagnosed person on the autism spectrum to be upfront with others about their asymptomatic cognitive wiring to achieve greater understanding and cooperation that totally backfires, alienating the ND (neuro-diverse) in ways they couldn't imagine.

Coming out helps to make 'normal' a broader category. Being on the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum is just one more way of being a unique, fully-textured human being.

If you have the energy, I'd say yes. Just do it matter-of-factly, like it's a medium deal but not a big deal.

Being a student myself, I would say a teacher should not tell us their personal health status, because it is precisely that; your personal information, and none of our business.

That is something only you, and those close to you that you choose to reveal it to, should know. Unless you are personally close to a particular student who you want to reveal it to, I think you should generally keep it to yourself and not tell everybody en masse.

No. People judge you differently. I once told work about my agoraphobia and it was the worst mistake ever. I was alienated and treated like a child. I'd rather quit than tell another employer any of my medical history.

It depends how you are viewed by your students. "Coming clean" might work if you have gained a large amount of respect from your students. However, it would probably only be worthwhile if you were teaching a class where autism might be studied, like psychology or some kind of "awareness" class like Citizenship.

I wouldn't come out and say it...you may face prejudice from your employers if news makes it up the chain. A lot of people wrongly assume that Aspies can never learn social skills or have empathy for others, which are kind of important in teaching. Further, without benefit of a diagnosis, you have absolutely no legal protection if someone does discriminate when they find out. I find soft disclosures get a lot of understanding from my students. I use things along the lines of "I may blank on your name sometimes...it's nothing personal just a crossed wire in my brain." Or "Please be quiet during attendance and make sure you are in your assigned seat, I can't pick your voice saying "here" out of too much other noise in the room or visually find you in the crowd of students if you aren't where you are supposed to be, and I may count you absent." Or, "My facial expressions and tone of voice don't always match up with how I'm feeling, so don't assume those things. Go by my words instead for feedback." I always try to use humor when getting these things across, so I don't appear demanding.

I would not tell students you are "autistic" or have any kind of "disorder", because most people take "autism" to mean more than it really does for most of us on the spectrum. I generally just disclose specific traits/issues with the "autism" as they come up to people. I'm not a teacher, btw.

I think that you have a fool for a patient- relying so much on self diagnosis.


A) Why would you 'inform' people of something that you dont know for sure is even a fact?

B) Lets say that you found a specialist and spent the time and money and got the offical diagnosis and did find out for a fact that you are indeed an 'aspie' .

So you then would know it was so yourself.
But even then- why announce it to your students?

What exactly do you imagine that that would accomplish?

And why do you term it "coming clean"?

Whats to 'come clean" about?

Do they all think you're weird, and you want them to cut you some slack?

Or what?

As someone who graduated from a technical institute 11 years before I discovered my own AS, I think that students just sort of accept and expect some degree of AS-style quirkiness from Instructors/Professors/Academia types. It just sort of comes with the territory of experts, specialists, geeks, nerds, teachers, absent minded professor types etc. In hindsight I would not be surprised if more than one of the Instructors I had turn out to have AS, whether diagnosed or not, as now that I think back about some of them I'm pretty sure they were. If it's not causing escalating problems that disclosure would resolve, I see no reason to bring it up. Just roll with it as you always have, keep calm & carry on.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I like the topic-area kind of disclosure in the following:

And there might be ways to use the fact that you're self-diagnosed to your advantage. By the way, I am also self-diagnosed and am quite comfortable with that fact.

For example,

'Autism actually turns out to be a spectrum. It blends with normal, of course it does'

'All kinds of people on the Autism Spectrum have made contributions'

'I might be on the Spectrum and I might not. And either way is perfectly okay.'

Providing this information probably in medium size doses. And hopefully getting a little ping ponging communication going.

Please be aware that all of this is probably taking risks for the sake of greater Autism Acceptance and Appreciation. But then again, everything we do in life is a risk.