comment: >
  
  
  plan to defend education
  
  I think you mean defund. Republicans definitely don't care to defend education; only the private charter-school corporations.
context: Know what's worse than teaching in a dysfunctional environment? Teaching in a dysfunctional environment without adequate training or experience. >
  
  Yup. It takes a lot of training to work with students of all backgrounds. I've had students living in the back of a car, kids whose only meals are the school breakfast and lunch, students who have been abused at home. I've had to make DHS calls with the principal, I've had to make calls to rehab facilities to have kids detox off drugs. The things I've seen are unbelievable. 
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  Yet, Desantis, Stitt, and these other governors seem to think teaching and education is easy, or that kids are easy to manage. Kids are human, with amazingly complex needs and great sapience to boot. They are smart, and they can pick up on the bullshit as well. They know this is not normal, but when bringing in any rando off the street is the standard that gets accepted, they just accept it as adults unwilling to care about them. >
  
  They don’t think that, their supporters in their faux populism and transactionalism do, a la the “I got through K-12, so I clearly know what it’s all about!” type pablum.
  And when you add in apathy, nay hostility, to critical thinking in general, no one should be surprised that this is treated as dogma among the “school choice/parental rights!” groups… >
  
  I was thinking about how many awful words there are always thrown about to people who value intellectual pursuits—nerd, geek, egghead, poindexter, etc.
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  For some reason, our culture really devalues intellectual pursuits and learning. They think it's a bad thing to love to learn and progress.
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  They seem to think things were better "Way back then", as if they way they did things was always so perfect, with no problems of any kind. Yet, their Arcadian time was still dystopian for a host of groups. That's the crazy part to me. How anyone could look back with great fondness, it's beyond me. >
  
  I really really hate the show "Young Sheldon" because I mostly lived that life back in the late 80s. What the show skips is the constant bullying and teacher-sanctioned violence I had to deal with. The culture here has ALWAYS been one of crushing the difference out of children; the higher degree of difference, the greater degree of crushing. >
  
  I also hate that show because being autistic as a girl is a completely fucking alien experience to that.   No one treats you like you are smart,  even if you are. I thought I could be friends with boys who were interested in science like me, but I learned very quickly about gatekeeping. One of the first things said to me in an after school science program(that you had to grade into) was a boy my age(who is now diagnosed) "you're not really smart. You're just here because the teacher let you."
  Autistic girls don't get diagnosed and aren't supported.  I found out when I was 31. 
  I am still grieving the teacher sanctioned abuse I lived through. I have developed C-PTSD from living as a disabled person my whole childhood and most of my adult life without support.  
  The higher degree of crushing tracks. >
  
  My three year-old daughter seems like she got hit somewhat moderately by the Autism Stick. If it makes you feel any better, we live in a world today where what you went through will absolutely not happen to a young girl much like you.
  A game I've been playing with her is "Sometimes Things Aren't Perfect." She likes to sort toys by size or shape in a straight line (kinda a big sign). I'll move one thing out of line and teach her to find something else that is perfect to focus on, like books on a shelf in perfect descending size order. I'm trying to teach her to lessen the uncomfort she feels when something isn't "right" as her mind sees right as.
  If I parent right, she'll have a large chest of tools with which to handle her neuro-divergency. >
  
  I mean, it is unfortunately still happening. Especially to kids of color, especially Black girls. 
  It may not happen as often but the most current information most people in the education system(especially in poorer areas)have on autism is dated to begin with, and based on white boys between 3-10. Girls are still diagnosed at a far lower rate and thus have less support. The most "effective" medical "treatment" for autism is still ABA, which uses the same kind if operant conditioning conversion therapy does. It was literally developed for training animals.  
  Your girl won't need to learn how to "handle" her autism. That's masking, and augmented behavior therapy uses elements of "desensitization" while encouraging masking. She'll need to learn how to understand why other people can't handle her. And that's the grief. 
   I can't tell you how many times I've thought people were my friends or liked me,  because I can't read social cues and I can only look at people I interact with in good faith. It's always hard finding out people you genuinely try to look at with compassion only consider you a calculation. 
  I get that you are trying to be nice and make me feel better, and I appreciate that. My grief is that I'll never get to redo the childhood I lost and there are still very few accommodations for people like me that mask at a high level because, well, being socialized as a girl, I've had to.
  Thankfully, I have a really excellent trauma therapist that does EMDR. It's not cheap, though, and I feel like I shouldn't be paying literal hundreds of dollars a month for something not my fault. I don't exactly have other options. 
  I am glad you are accepting of your kid and I encourage checking out the book "neurotribes". It's a great primer on the history of the diagnosis and I think it would help most parents of spectrum kids a lot. I certainly don't embrace every aspect of the neurodiversity movement(more that I have disaste for a subset of certain individuals within it than anything) but I think it's a really good step in the right direction for public acceptance. >
  
  Why would anyone want to be a teacher? Low pay, constant demonization, threats of violence. Crazy parents. This is how public education dies. Replaced by private indoctrination. >
  
  That's what there is a teacher exodus happening right now. No one cared to value teachers whatsoever. Ever since I quit, I have found my stress levels go down significantly, and I don't have headaches like I used to. I actually have lost weight as well, and I'm in better shape than ever before. It's incredible. >
  
  What do you do now? >
  
  Right now, I'm still searching for a job. I've done a bit of tutoring of some families I know, and I've written articles for different publications for cash. However, I've been looking to find work. I'm putting in for different locales. So far, nothing. 
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  I'm contemplating putting in for a teaching abroad jobs for the moment. If I have to leave the nation, so be it. >
  
  Teaching abroad is, generally speaking, fantastic.  This is country 4 for me and I'm dreading the move back to the US next year (wife's job is relocating her).  Manageable class sizes, well behaved kids and parents, admin who actually are kind of useful, etc.  
  And if you go the Asia route, you can actually save a good bit of money. >
  
  What country do you recommend? >
  
  Depends what you're looking for.  I tried Argentina because I speak enough Spanish but I absolutely hated it - the food (outside of steak and ice cream and wine) is awful, restaurants don't open until 8 PM (with a baby, that was hard), and every restaurant has the same 3-4 bland things.  Now I'm in Malaysia which I absolutely adore and am sad to leave.  Everyone speaks English, but if you can get a gig in one of the international schools, you'll be paid well (extremely well for the local cost of living, which is super low) and can live well and save bundles.  I know China is always hiring and pays really well for the cost of living, but it is China and there are associated issues there.  I had a friend who adored Cameroon when she taught there and it allowed her to pay off her 30k credit card debt in a year.    
  It just depends on what's important to you.  If you haven't lived abroad, though, you'll probably only get offers from places like China or South Korea.  Once you prove that you can live abroad, more places become possibilities. >
  
  Wow. I will have to look into that. >
  
  
  Since Florida opened teaching roles to veterans without a bachelor’s degree last August, the initiative has only netted the state 11 new teachers, according to the state’s education department, raising the question of whether lowering standards is an effective solution to the shortages. 
  Department of Education data shows 47 states have reported teacher shortages this school year with the problem being most acute in urban and rural areas. Meanwhile, desperate state legislatures are passing laws making it easier to become a public schoolteacher by lowering or eliminating certain qualifications.  
  The National Council On Teacher Quality told CNN that over the last two years, 23 states have lowered teacher qualification requirements for beginning teachers. That includes lowering or removing assessment tests designed to determine whether teachers have a firm grasp on the subject they will teach and creating emergency teaching certificates to expedite candidates into the classroom without a teaching degree. 
  Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma have created new pathways for people without a bachelor’s degree to teach in classrooms. 
  “Making it easier to become a teacher is an overly broad, short-term solution to staffing challenges that amounts to saying we just need ‘warm bodies’ in classrooms. It’s harmful to students and insulting to the teaching profession,” said Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a Washington, DC, think tank that researches and evaluates teacher quality nationwide.
  
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  I anticipate if the right-wing education fascism continues in states like Florida and Oklahoma, kids will just drop out altogether at greater rates than ever. I wouldn't be surprised. Classes with no teacher in them? What is up with that?
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  Lowering the education standards at large not only leads to more unqualified people who tend to quit earlier than professionals, but it also sends the message to students that no adults really wants to be there for them. It shows kids that America doesn't care about education. In turn, the kids end up saying "Why should I?"
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  Of course lowering the education professional standards wouldn't lead to more teachers in school. It basically shows how education has not a scintilla of value in America.
  Welcome to idiocracy, America! >
  
  In Seminole County Florida, they are talking about moving to in-person virtual classes. That means that one teacher will telecast to another classroom where there is no teacher. Seriously. >
  
  We have had multiple classes being taught this way in the school I work at since the beginning of this school year. We are short 15+ teachers, so it's a constant shuffle to cover classes every day with county admin coming in to help and the actual faculty having to sub the empty spots. The problem is the terrible pay because this is a very HCOL region. >
  
  Yup. My former school was like this as well, and talking with some of my friends still in school, almost all the schools are like this now. My former school was short some days of 15 teachers, then when the RSV and Covid outbreak hit, we were out half the staff and had to be out for 2 whole weeks.
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  They still made me go to school in person, which was ridiculous. Considering the kids were out of school, why was I going to school? >
  
  Because petty tyrants flourish in school administration.
  Heck, it’s probably on the job application… >
  
  In Japan teachers are considered honored people.  In the US they are considered cheap child care.  They are treated with contempt. 
  Nurses only a little better. >
  
  Just watching YT videos of them making school lunches is like, what the fuck am I eating over here, rubber? >
  
  Damn who would have thought that the GQP plan to defund education, villainize teachers, keep schools open shooting ranges, and promote idiotic cultural BS over actual knowledge and education would lead to qualified teachers saying "f*** it, I'm out". Especially in a climate where jobs are plentiful