Over the weekend there have been numerous news reports detailing plans for us dolescum laid out by a certain politician, maybe it was just me being a bit naïve thinking perhaps the coalition didn’t have any more horrors in store for us. Later this week said unnamed work and pensions secretary will unveil his plans to reform the benefits system in a new white paper.
So far the coalition have decided to put a one year time limit on claiming ESA (Employment Support Allowance – the replacement benefit for Incapacity Benefit) (see the blog a wrote a couple of weeks back, the one with the guillotine) and then once you are on JSA (Jobseeker’s Allowance) you will be required to do 4 weeks of work, be it litter picking, cleaning up graffiti, community gardening projects etc if you don’t attend any interviews! For me job interviews have been very thin on the ground, suitable jobs to apply for have been thin on the ground. Take my last trip to the Job
Centre the advisor tells me she has a suitable job for me to apply for (YIPPEEE), data entry (it will do, I hope my colleagues will be nice) working 3-11pm each day (beggars can’t be choosers, it will be OK for a while) minimum wage (can we both live off that? Probably not), working for a meat processing company (NO THANKS! – I’ve been a vegetarian since the age of 12; imagine the options available in the staff canteen. I can just imagine it, that working environment is that I imagine hell (if there’s such a place?) would be like. In my head I’m trying to weigh up the pros and cons doing data entry for a bunch of butchers or scrubbing clean walls graffitied by a bunch of chavs. (as the coalition might like me to do) I’m feeling a bit punished here, punished for not able (or not applying for one in particular) to find a job, it not as though I haven’t tried, as a result of this I’m pursing a life of self-employment which many would consider as being insane in this current climate, but until that day comes I remain a hapless jobseeker. I may sound like whinging dolescum, but really my chances of getting a job like the one I used to do are very slim, finding a job is tough enough, but finding a job with Tourette’s often feels like an impossible task. But one day…one day I’ll have a job.
To make me feel even worse I have just found out this morning that I have been sanctioned (lost £9 of our joint JSA) by the DWP for doing voluntary work. I just feel like crying.
Keep going! I'm a teacher with Tourette's and at first, when applying for jobs, I had zero replies and interviews. Then, when I stopped ticking the 'disability' box and referring to it in my personal statement as a 'positive for working with kids with Special Educational Needs', I started getting interviews. I would bring it up then when they can judge me for me first. It's not ideal - I doubt I have any legal standpoint if any problems arose...
I don't tend to tick the disability box as I don't feel disabled and it's hard to quantify how my TS actually affects me. It has however meant that I have had to stop teaching (my last post was
taching music in a pupil referal unit) my main problem comes from this career change as I don't have the relevent experience but plenty of transferable skills and a will to give anything a go.
When I do get an interview I'm over qualified, I don't have the relevent experience and the interview is peppered with tics (copralalia - hence not teaching). I'm glad that there are other teachers out there with TS, what do your students think about your TS?
I am very lucky that my tics are all non-vocal and mild, but my ADHD limits my performance when it comes to marking, reducing the complexities of a child to a number and jumping through all the other unnecessary paperwork hoops.
I do have very good relationships with all the children I teach, and I think that being 'naughty' in the past has really helped me to reach out to other children with behavioural issues - I'm always called a 'sick teacher' or 'safe' which I hope is good!
In general though, the children are all very accepting of my tics or 'funny faces', even up to secondary level. I used to be really concious of my tics even though they are mild and I would seek to hide them. In a classroom though, it's nigh on impossible, so the best way I've found to deal with it is to answer questions honestly with a 'in my brain there is too much of certain chemicals which make me tic', tell them it's Tourette's and tell them about a famous ticcer like Tim Howard - former Man U and now Everton goalkeeper.
With my first ever class in teacher training at secondary level, I was a little defensive about my tics and the children then could hold that against me as a weakness. By being straight up in subsequent classes, the children realise that to me, it's actually not a weakness, that it's just one of Sir's funny faces.
I can only imagine what it's like having coprolalia in an interview. I know that when I mention my Tourette's people ask me if I swear and assume that I do. That's why I don't mention it in my applications. Still, people are incredibly prejudiced. And I agree, it's not a disability - it doesn't disable me from doing anything. It only disables other people from thinking you can.
What ages did you teach? Full credit for teaching in a PRU, how was it?
I taught at secondary level, mainly supply. I really enjoyed working in a PRU although my TA "outed" my to the kids, the kids were fine about it, and were very intersted to learn more, however the mainstream was awful, the kids would see my tics as a weakness so I had to try my best to hide them, the staff weren't much better, I'd often pick a kid up on using bad language and get told "oh, but ,Miss I got tourette's" (clueless child!). I was constantly having to prove myself to my collegues and at the same time working so hard to cover up my tics. My organsational skills are pretty weak so it was tough going keeping up with all the paperwork (as I had inherited a chaotic depatment and no lesson plans so I had to start from sctatch so I was planning lessons for the next day until late into the night). But when you have a good day it's great there's nothing like going into the staff room knowing you've just had a breakthrough lesson and the kids have achieved great things.
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