Good things

A good thing might be coming to an end. After two years of working together our classroom might be splitting up during the fall of next year.

Gwinnett County Public Schools is having serious issues with its’ severe Autism program. Over the years teachers, administrators, and behavior specialists have given in to parent’s demands to keep their kids in regular schools instead of taking a stand and sending them to schools specifically designed to deal with sever behavior problems among the intellectually disabled. As a result some people have gotten seriously hurt, including me. Because of all this, the special education coordinator for the county, along with other teachers and administrators are going to look into the placement of every child with Autism and the appropriateness of their placement.

I guess that there is only so much that anyone can take. After seriously hurting my back in August of last year I have had to think about what my options are.

On the one hand I love my job. I get a great amount of satisfaction working where I am and really do enjoy my kids. On the other hand I don’t know who is floating around in the system, or what crazy parent is going to fight the system, and who is going to give in and allow their kid to be placed in a school where they could really hurt themselves or others. There are just too many unknowns right now and until things get sorted out, my coworkers are thinking that they should move on.

I don’t want to get carried out on a stretcher. And after seeing the size of some of the kids that could be place in my room, and considering the violent nature of some of them, perhaps now is a good time to move on and work on improving my employment in terms of how much I am making while doing what I enjoy.

It is clichéd to say that where one door closes, another one opens and so forth, but if accepted to grad school out west, I could also pursue my dream of becoming a Seminary or Institute teacher for the Church. In fact this week I am going to call my local coordinator to set up some student teaching and observations that could lead to a part time position in the fall. That would be great to go to school full time, teach seminary on the side and then have another part time job to pay for my car and other things.

Even though I will be sad if and when the work situation comes to an end, working with the people I have been with for the past two years and all the experiences I have had, both good and bad, have been worth it. The growth that I have experienced over the past two years is something that I would not trade. If given the opportunity to do it all over again, I would do nothing different.

It will be interesting to see what options I have come March.