Thursday, May 13, 2010

Asperger Discrimination




As I have mentioned previously, I was let go by the high school I was teaching over the fact that, while I was a good lecturer and put together intellectually stimulating classes, I failed to properly "connect" with students. One of the administrators was kind enough to send me an email, thanking me for what I had done for them, even if they could not bring me back:


Benzion—you have done a lot of good things this year.  The effort that you have put in to your classes and to the school has been nothing short of exemplary.  Your knowledge of the material is superb, your preparation for your classes (with the Powerpoint notes) was admirable, and the level at which you taught was sophisticated and challenging.  Your willingness to engage the students in questions and discussion improved over the course of the year, and while there is much growth still necessary on this front, I applaud your effort in making some positive changes.

All of that being said, your way of relating to kids made it a challenging learning environment for them and contributed greatly to the classroom management problems that existed all year.  Whether in comments on report cards or in class, there seemed to be a constant series of difficult interactions that helped to create a gap between you and the students.  You tried hard to overcome that gap, and worked very hard to become part of the greater fabric of the school, and you deserve a lot of credit for that effort.  Still, this gap remained and I believe will continue to be an obstacle for you in teaching this age of students.


You are very bright, thoughtful and knowledgeable and I believe that you have a bright future ahead of you, but I also believe that working in a university or an adult setting—people who will appreciate your expertise and your knowledge for their own sake—is one that is better suited for you.



You began to explain to me on Wednesday the challenges your Aspergers poses for you.  In many ways, I don't truly understand them--just as you probably don't truly understand the way that I see and read people--the difference being that you probably have thought a lot about these differences whereas I have not thought about them all that much.  Given what you describe, though, I can tell that you have worked very hard to overcome most of these challenges and probably are conscious of it every day. 

Over time, with experience and learning, you may well become a very good high school classroom teacher, but I still believe that your strengths would be better used either with adults or in a setting such as a library, where you can be extremely helpful to those who need it but would not need to worry as much about group dynamics and classroom management. 


I must admit that I was impressed by this administrator's willingness to take Asperger syndrome seriously as a legitimate way of viewing the world and not simply as a disability. As I have said before on this blog, I view myself, as an Asperger, as a member of a minority group.

Here is a thought experiment I offer readers to consider how to understand my situation. Imagine this school had a black teacher, who was very talented, but for some reason did not relate well to the students. This is perfectly reasonable; there likely would be a major gap in terms of style and personality between such a teacher and our white student body. Maybe he teaches history as if he were a black preacher, expecting "amen" responses and likes to stick it to students as he challenges them about "white privilege," precisely to make them uncomfortable? (I actually teach very much in a preacher mode. Usually the second thing people notice about my teaching is that, besides for being very smart, I am also very intense.) What if our administrator were to write this black teacher the letter he wrote me, saying good job but you lack the right "touch" with students? There is a good chance this teacher would sue the school for discrimination on the grounds that what was really meant was that he was black. It is not clear that this person would win, but the school would certainly be hard pressed to respond. Where does one draw the line between color and ethnic background and personal relations, particularly as it is precisely the person's color and ethnic background that is causing the difficulty with personal relations?

The opposition would argue that part of multiculturalism is that the school has to prepare students, as part of their education, to deal with all sorts of people even those they might not naturally feel comfortable with. How are the students going to be prepared to deal with black superiors unless they have had the experience of being taught by black teachers? Does the school simply assume that blacks cannot or should not be in positions of authority so students do not have to worry about it. The school would be challenged to distinguish between the administrator's actions and the white shoe law firms of early twentieth century America, who did not hire Jews on the grounds that they did not "fit" with their sort of clientele.

One of the great lessons of the civil rights movement, and a confirmation of an "Asperger" truth, was the necessity of judging people by hard empirical standards as these are the only kind that are actually meaningful. All vague claims of comfort or how someone affects group dynamics are meaningless; merely cover for those in power. What these claims really mean is that "the person is not like us so we do not want him."

21 comments:

Izgad said...

To be clear, no I am not about to sue my school. I am actually very grateful for all they have done for me. I believe that discrimination should be legal. If a private business wishes to put up a sign saying no Jews, blacks or Asperger’s need apply, that should be their right. Finally, the autism community has yet to develop the necessary legal muscle to engage in such lawsuits. I believe this is something we need to work toward and we should be acting like other minority groups in this society, sue and sue often.

Clarissa said...

Wow, this whole "go hide in the library" thing is really offensive. I wonder why this person doesn't consider that the way you interact with people is the reverse side of your intelligence and erudition. I mean, if they want somebody super smart, maybe they should get used to the idea that this kind of teacher will not be smiley and relatable.


I find these things very annoying and offensive.

Miss S. said...

Well the issue with the analogy (Aspies vs. Blacks) is that there is not such thing as a 'Black teaching style'. If someone were to propose such, they would easily be shot down. In the given example, the Black teacher is engaging in a style that is not inherently tied into their race. It would not be to hard to find a Black teacher whose speech and methodologies were similar if not identical to their White counterparts. The true could be said of Aspies from individual to individual. The problem here is trying to separate the behavior as independent from the classification. That may or may not be feasible.

In high school, I did have a Black teacher who, while he was not 'preachy', seemed to be very much on the Black Power/Afrocentric kick. His 1/2 year long World Cultures class consisted of 1 week where we covered Europe, Asia and the Americas, and the rest of the semester was dedicated to studying Africa. Some White students pointed this out, and his response was "too bad, so sad" basically. If he were your run-of-the-mill teacher, I think he would have been professionally reprimanded. However, he was one of the assistant football coaches and all of his teaching eccentricities seemed to be long forgotten come Friday night (HS football night). Clear conflict of interest here that is very common in public schools. It may be as well in private schools; you would need to identify in what other roles would you be indispensable to the school?

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Clarissa said...

Anonymous: as an educator, I found your comments to be very interesting and useful. It is always good to know how students perceive their teachers. I tried imagining what it would feel like being in the classroom you described. I only know your teacher from this blog and it is obvious to me that he is an incredibly intelligent person whose erudition is immense. For me, the bathroom visits and cell phones (which seem to be the main complaints against him) would be quite a small price to pay for being exposed to this wide-ranging knowledge.

My experience of high school teaching is rather limited (I'm a college professor). I do have a feeling, though, that high school students are used to being coddled in some very extreme ways. Your experience with Chinn has prepared you for what you can expect in the adult world a lot more than any other type of teacher.

P.S. Asperger's is NOT a disability. In itself, Asperger's does not prevent anybody from being a fantastic teacher. Just the opposite, many people with Asperger's shine as teachers precisely because of the nature of their way of being.

Izgad said...

Anonymous

I am pretty certain I know who this is.

As I tried to make clear, I do not see what I wrote as a complaint. I am very grateful to the administration for the opportunity they gave me. In no way do I claim that I have been wronged. I was raising a technical issue of interest to me. Your inability to follow an argument and distinguish it from your personal emotions was one of the things that I tried and failed to teach you this year.

If you are who I assume you are you most certainly did not get straight A s even on the quizzes which I designed to be fairly easy. The quizzes were there simply as a means to keep students honest. At the end of the day no one got an A in my class who did not work for it. I took attendance and the school only allows a certain number of absences. So students certainly had to come to class.

Girls certainly are privileged to be in my classroom as are boys. An education is by definition a privilege that most be earned through hard work and the ability to abide by school rules. I never denied that girl’s have particular needs. This has nothing to do with sexism, simply biological facts. While I may try to be understanding of these needs, ultimately they are your responsibility. They do not give you the right to leave my classroom every day for a week.

No I did not make a habit of
getting into fights or shouting matches with students beyond the fact that at times I did try to talk over students. Rather than someone who yelled at students I put up with students yelling at me for more so than most teachers. If you students had a complaint I would let you air it out even at the cost of wasting a class. I felt that it was important that you be allowed to say your piece even when I disagreed with it.
I most certainly did not fail 85% of the students. I am not sure where you get your facts from. If there was history to be made it was not by me, but by those who wrote the papers.

Your claim that I passed people who wrote me letters of recommendation is a lie. One person wrote me a letter and I never asked that person to. And guess what that person did not pass on their first draft.
My bathroom policy evolved over the year once I realized that I was dealing with students like you who were not mature and were taking advantage of the system. The pass system came at the end as an attempt to avoid the issue of students raising their hands.

I am glad you liked the cell phone policy I used at the beginning of the year. You making an appointment with your hair dresser in middle of class was one of the reasons why I had to drop it. Taking cell phones and reading messages out loud in class is used in colleges and was not invented by me.

I was hired because there was a job opening, which I heard about and contacted the administration. I had a wonderful interview with them and they were glad to have someone with a graduate level background in the field. Funny how my relationship to the Berman family never came up in those interviews or any other conversation I had with the administration. This was probably because I am not related to the Bermans. They are a wonderful family, who give a lot of money to the school. I was friends with one of the Bermans in high school and my younger brother is married to one. Frankly if my connection to that family could get me a job I would have asked for something above teaching high school. There has to be hundreds of people in Silver Spring with a stronger connection to the Berman family than mine.

I am not sure how I was a media disaster. My grapevine sources described my reputation as someone who is crazy, but good.

Clarissa said...

"Taking cell phones and reading messages out loud in class is used in colleges and was not invented by me."

-True. My colleague who teaches Spanish at Yale had a following policy concerning cell phones: If the phone rang during class, the student had to answer the call in Spanish. If they texte during class, they had to come to the board, write their text there, and translate it into Spanish.

Miss S. said...

Anonymous,
You may be a HS senior, but you definitely have a lot of growing up to do. Prepare yourself for a very rude awakening when you enter something called 'the real world'. First of all, in high school, you only need to put up with a difficult teacher for 1 year. On the job, you'll have to put up with many difficult people for years on end. That is unless you plan to change jobs everytime you don't like your boss. If this is the case, a lot of time will be passing by where you are not collecting a paycheck. Second of all, the tone of your writing is incredibly disrespectful. I am not all that old, but I was raised to address adults as 'Mr.', 'Ms.' or 'Mrs.l...when you answer a question you say 'yes sir' or 'yes maam'. Only if the individual requests otherwise do you say something else. And if you are criticizing them, then you default back to the more respectful way to address them. Third, your criticism is full of whining and personal attacks. Such a rant would never be taken seriously among adults and you make yourself look much worse than the person you are criticizing. And lastly, spellcheck is your friend.

Miss S. said...

Hey fix my typos please...I'm posting from my phone!

R' Daniel said...

I would not despair if I were you. I taught high school for three years because it was the condition of my taking a Wilson fellowship. I never intended on teaching full time, and in my opinion, an intellectual doesn't belong teaching in high schools. If you have a Masters, try to get a job teaching community college or online classes, or try to get an adjunct position. You will like it better and will get more out of it for a career in academia.

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Clarissa said...

Is this an actual parent of a student writing? I hope not because that would be too scary. These helicopter parents are the worst nightmare not only for teachers but first and foremost for the kids themselves.

Izgad said...

Anonymous Person who Claims to be a Parent and Teacher

How well do you believe you would come out if anonymous people could round up anyone who did not like you so that they could anonymously say whatever they wanted against you without recriminations? You obviously either lack an understanding of the historical method of analysis or of students as you would have realized that the standard complaints of students struggling in class are attacks against the teaching style, claims hostility to many kids and a random approach to grading. As such these claims are pretty much meaningless. We should gather all students who have ever gotten a bad grade in your class and see if they say anything different about you.

I deny that I have embarrassed any administrators. I am not even saying that they have done anything wrong to me. Notice that I never claimed that I had been discriminated against or even that my theoretical black teacher should win his discrimination case. The very kind letter I was sent set up an interesting scenario in my mind precisely because it was so generous to me and acknowledged that on the obviously measurable grounds I am a good teacher and my year was a success. What intrigued me was that the very act of being so kind to me opened them up and placed them in a grey zone of potentially being caught in this charge of being kind, polite bigots. My motives in sharing this letter had nothing to do with getting back at anyone, but to share this line of thinking that I found so interesting.

NO. ASPERGER SYNDROME IS NOT A DISABILITY!

The entire post was premised on the assumption that Aspergers are members of a minority group just like blacks and gays. Whatever my theoretical speculations about people who would turn a person down for a job over issues that essentially amount to Asperger syndrome, people like you, who believe that Asperger syndrome is a disability, ARE BIGOTS.

Rather than being a disability, Asperger Syndrome, among many things, is the lack of the mental disability of not being able to read a text that is right in front of your face.

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Izgad said...

Anonymous

As long as you are anonymous I am not capable of refuting or confirming anything you say. As such any claim that you make about yourself or about me is inherently meaningless. For all I know you can be the Lindbergh baby. For this reason it is considered remarkably rude to anonymously post personal attacks. Most bloggers have the practice to simply remove such comments.

In terms of whether I am a good teacher or not. The whole post was premised on the acceptance of the evaluation of me in the letter, one that is far more positive of me than yours. Even my implied minor criticism of the letter is premised on the fact that the administrator does think highly of me. You are free to have your opinion about me, but that is a separate conversation.

Clarissa said...

"Rather than being a disability, Asperger Syndrome, among many things, is the lack of the mental disability of not being able to read a text that is right in front of your face."

-Bravo! This is a great definition of Asperger's.

The condescension one experiences from many NT folks is as overwhelming as it is completely baseless.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Chinn,

As a student in your class, I must say I found Jewish History to be very fun and interesting to study and even almost relive. Thanks for a great year under your new methods of teaching, and I'm sure many would say the same.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Chinn,

As a student in your class, I agree with anonymous. Your class was so much fun because we learned nothing and it was more or less a free period. I knew I could always count on your class to entertain me with all the screaming and weird but funny motions. I also could sleep whenever I was tired. Thank you so much for a great year - a perfect senior joke class!

Good luck in your next teaching destination!

Clarissa said...

Sounds like there were some weird students in that class. It's kind of hard for them to decide whether there was constant screaming or the class was so quiet they could actually sleep.