The Hardest Parts...

Over the course of my few years establishing myself as a well-trained special education teacher, I've determined what has made my job the most difficult.  No, it's not the long hours or extensive paperwork, nor is it the low salary with continued budget freezes.  Through my short time here at the beginning of my career, I've narrowed it down to two things: two things that I was never prepared for during my undergraduate or graduate years; two things that are impossible to be prepared for unless you are entirely thrown into it and allowed to experience first hand.  But guess what, folks?  I'm going to give them to you now, free of charge and sans the actual heartbreak you feel having to experience them:

1.)  There are going to be some students who, no matter how much success you feel they have met within the confines of your little building, are going to become more influenced by the big, bad outside world of drug dealing, drug doing, and gang affiliating.

2.)  There are going to be some students who, no matter how much you have done and sacrificed for them (i.e. going to their sports games both in and out of school, buying them supplies that you know their parents can't provide, working one-on-one with them during your only planning time, giving them little trinkets just for showing up to school) will completely disrespect you and tell you straight to your face that they "don't give a sh*t what you've done for [them]."

These are the two things that I have found to be the most difficult to deal with.  Because it's a new year, I'm going to try to just let these things go and focus more on the positive aspects of what I do.  I can't dwell on the things that I cannot change.  And those are two things that, unfortunately, I will never be able to change.

I'll be back tomorrow with two new things: the two things that make my job the best.  That's what I need to focus on for 2012.


Happy New Year.