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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Angelika After almost twelve years of service at the behavioral therapy early intervention facility for autistic children, I finally made the leap and changed jobs at the end of August. After twelve years, you do get into a bit of a rut. You know your way around, understand how the place operates, and have a thousand concerns about starting something new because no one can predict exactly what will come. I'm not exactly a young sprout anymore, and I also struggle with the fact that no one here really knows my qualifications. I have a diploma in "Heilpädagogik" from a German "Fachhochschule". Back in my day, there were no other options, but studying at a Fachhochschule is often faster than at a University if you don't count the various internships that students usually have to complete and then the recognition year. When converting degrees to the American system, however, usually only the years spent at a university count, and degrees from Fachhochschulen are often equated with the American bachelor's degree and are not considered a higher degree, which are called "masters" here. This is a somewhat skewed assessment because the bachelor's degree in the USA is more like a combination of the German Abitur and the preliminary diploma. Thus, an American bachelor's student still has to take general education courses such as English, math, and history and rarely specializes in a subject. The problem was that, although I am well-trained by German standards with a lot of experience, I lack the master's degree by American standards, and the positions that only require a bachelor's degree here are often subordinate and poorly paid.
In my field, things are often very bureaucratic. Many institutions receive government funding. The autism therapy that I provide has been paid by health insurance companies for some time now. That's when the red tape kicks in, while in other industries, like the software industry, things are a bit more relaxed and people with unusual backgrounds or degrees can certainly catapult themselves into good positions if they have the necessary talent or knowledge.
But I digress, because I actually wanted to report how and what I landed for a new job. For quite some time, I had been occasionally checking the portal craigslist.org for interesting job opportunities. And one Sunday evening, I found a job listing that seemed tailor-made for me. So, I quickly revised my resume, added a proper cover letter, and sent the application via email. The next day, I already received an invitation for an interview, which went well, and on the same day, the offer was on the table.
So I took the leap and am now working at a private school as a behavioral therapy specialist in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco. The school is still in its early stages and relatively small, essentially a start-up school. Currently, there are classes from kindergarten to sixth grade. Some classes are still combined because the number of students is still relatively small. For example, we have a third/fourth grade class where the children are taught together. The children at the school typically have behavioral issues such as hyperactivity or anxiety disorders; some in my class have autism. The students at our school are of normal or even above-average intelligence but have often had significant difficulties in regular schools due to their social behavior. Our classes are very small, and we have two staff members in each class, with a primary school teacher and a behavioral therapy specialist always present.
I have a second-grade class together with my colleague, and we currently have six students. My colleague is responsible for the academic material, and I am responsible for behavior. I teach an hour every day focused on positive social behavior, called SEL (Social Emotional Learning), which I enjoy very much. The children in the class are not easy, and I have already sustained some injuries because some of my students are also aggressive. But I like the new challenge and the concept of our school very much, because otherwise the prevailing model here is that children are assigned an aide as needed to help them manage the material and integrate into the class.
In this line of work, there are hardly any well-trained candidates here, and the pay is usually not good either. But our school follows the philosophy of team teaching, and my colleague and I are on the same level. Since the school is private, there are fewer government regulations, which in practice means that we also have more freedom in the classroom. In any case, I am glad that I had the courage to try something new again!
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