Elementary School Teacher's Hardest Day

Video Transcript

"I've thought a lot about what my hardest day would have been, and there are days that you have issues with parents, or issues with children, or issues with the principal, but I think the worst day of every year, is the last day of school, because you have between sixteen and twenty people you've invested your life in, walk out the door, and really you'll probably never see ninety percent of them again, so that's usually the worst day of the year. The day I left Texas, it was my fourth year teaching in Texas, and I knew I'd never see those students again, and that was why that was particularly challenging. It's one thing, with maybe they'll come in, or maybe I'll have their sister, but when you're leaving the state, you know you're never going to see these kids again, and you've given your life to them, for the past year of your life. Students, like anyone else, have a loss in their life, and it's especially hard to watch children go through major family upsets, or grieving the loss of a parent, or a family member, and that's something that is not uncommon, and this year we had a teacher, who actually had to grieve the loss of one of her students, and those are devastating days. The teacher, I think, has to settle it with themselves at home, before they come in, because they not only get to grieve the loss themselves, but they have to set a standard for how to do it, because often, it's the first time students have ever had to deal with anything, like that."