Gardening Can Have Different Faces

Category: Ramblings | Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:42 am

Fall is always a crazy work time for me. No matter how much time I spend in spring and summer setting curriculum, files and spreadsheets the influx of new students in fall over whelms the daily necessities of the job and Federal paperwork.

I absolutely love what I do and love the kids I work with. As a special education teacher in an elementary school no year is ever the same. We have a high mobility rate and 70% or more of our students live in poverty. Many are working families at minimum wage jobs. Many of the children's only meals are gotten at school some days. No matter how our country bashes teachers and the school system I feel like I work with some of the best teachers that are the most caring, hard working people around.

Tonight was a fund raiser, a spaghetti feed put on by staff and community members. Staff sold, donated and bought meals and deserts as well as donating time well beyond their regular work day. This is just one of many things that staff does throughout the year to extend and tie the school and community together. Our Arts and Craft Night is the next 13 hour day. Before that many of the neediest families will get food boxes for Thanksgiving and some will be taking home backpacks with food for getting through the week-ends.

This group of hard working professionals apply for grants, use connections to community organizations and dig into their own finances to make sure students and their families can have the necessities for school. Fund raisers like tonight's also go to fund field trips and school equipment. The thing is, I don't believe that the school I work at is any different than any other school. It isn't a job that is done for the money. My husband makes double what I do, and we would be in a total different situation if we had to live on only my salary. There are far too many teachers I know having to work two jobs.

With funding cuts and economic tough times please don't complain about schools. Go to your local school and volunteer to read with a student or two on a regular basis. You might be surprised at the change it can make for a child and maybe you too. It can be like tending and watching your garden grow.

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Donna S wrote on Sat Nov 16, 2013 9:48 am:

Well said Jewell.

AgnesKS wrote on Sat Nov 16, 2013 4:21 pm:

Namaste Jewell, I can relate with your heart thoughts about students with special needs and that the teachers doing this job isn't about 'working' but with passion in it too. My brother is teaching in a special need school and his students are in their teens. Just received an email from him that some of them are really hard to 'teach' but his heart is in it .. no matter how some of them 'knock' him out. He's taking them to a chicken rice stall near the beach every Friday for lunch .. so that they'll get a taste of how it's like to be in public and eating amongst the rest of the world. That is true passion to work in this field. I thank you and all your colleagues for choosing this 'calling'. You're right. Parents complain too much and I feel that the parents should educate themselves on how to teach their own children and not rely too much on teachers. My daughter is a teacher too. God bless all teachers.