TP: The life of a special ed teacher
Source: Times-Picayune
In a just society, special education teachers and hedge-fund managers would have to swap salaries. Check out the story here about the struggles of one such teacher in a New Orleans charter school.
As teacher Shawn Datchuk surveyed a class of new students at a new school, he eyed one boy, a nearly 6-foot-tall sixth-grader, struggling with a one-paragraph assignment: What does college mean to you?
The boy's hand shot up.
"How do you spell the word 'us'?" he asked, frustrated.
Datchuk looked at the boy's paper, finding only gibberish.
The teacher had spent the morning coping with students' first-day jitters at New Orleans College Prep, one of many start-up charter schools in New Orleans. He had expected a challenge. Still, this boy gave him pause.
He moved to another student, thinking, Where do I start?
The question would linger over the year as Datchuk taught students who always needed more time than he could give. He would face heart-rending choices: As the school's only special education teacher, Datchuk could spend hours each day helping just this one student. Or he could use that time to help others perform at their grade level.
