“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Yesterday I enjoyed the rare opportunity of an afternoon free for writing. So I penned a few more pages in the new book and this time found myself back in the classroom.

Then, as I was thinking about my teaching career, I dug around to find the above report card from my very first job. I had a group of three to six-year-olds on what was then known as “the autism spectrum.”

None of the report cards the county handed out came close to being appropriate for the unique needs of my students, so I designed my own. This way, rather than constantly recording grades of “F” or “Unsatisfactory” or “Fails to meet minimum grade-level standards” (which schools were sending home, like a punch in the gut, every term) I could give both the children and their parents something meaningful.

What surprises me is to see how my core standards for classroom behavior remained consistent over the course of my career – regardless of exceptionality or age. You will see what I’m talking about if you listen to the book segment I read on the video.

Teaching is a real privilege, and a huge responsibility. It is also a highly skilled professional discipline. Keep that in mind next time you hear someone lambast educators because one more politician makes up yet another baseless lie trying to land a cheap shot.

Here’s the story, taken from my work in exceptional education in the late 1990’s.

Enjoy – DEREK