What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

Besides kids and marriage, births and deaths, I have to say the experience that helped me grow the most was my first teaching job. When I was applying for teaching jobs I was working as a teacher’s aide. I had already gotten my teaching certificate but had gotten pregnant with my daughter right at the end of the coursework. I was a stay at home mom for my daughter and my son, working nights and weekends when my husband was home. It never seemed practical nor lucrative to go to work and have the kids in daycare.

I had been putting out one resume after another and honestly getting no responses. Then I was asked to come in for an interview. I couldn’t remember what job it was or what school but I was soon to find out. I was hired immediately following my interview and sent off to get fingerprints and TB tests. What I was about to find out was that this was not an ordinary school.

The school was called a Clinical Day Treatment Program for socially/emotionally disturbed children. To sum it up in the easiest way it was a school for all the kids that got kicked out of all the public schools they were sent to because they were too violent and disruptive to be handled by public school employees. These kids were primarily from poverty, from mixed families, and from abuse situations. Not all were like that, but most were. I had to learn how to safely restrain a person, to keep myself and others safe. I had to learn how to try and teach a student who was so behind that every hint of instruction caused infuriated frustration leading to meltdowns, room destroying, bodily functions being let loose…You name it, we saw it.

Anyhow, I learned from these kids that they just needed someone to understand that their lives were pretty much f—-ed up, and being kicked out of one school after another did nothing for family ties. The entire families were frustrated, angry, tired, sad, disappointed, everything! They needed someone who was not going to give up on them even when they were being punched, bitten, spit on, stabbed with pencils, and all the other behaviors they had. I had the patience. Not much of it bothered me. Every day was a new day. Every mistake was a chance to learn. Every child could learn something in some way.

So, that’s the long version. People don’t hear about these kids and these schools by the time they get there. By the time they came to us the others involved were only relieved to see them go. I miss those kids and miss that job. But, I did learn a lot about patience, humility, trust, and love.