The Reason for it All

Last night was Back to School Night at my job.

Now, I really do not like having to work 12-hour days, and, to top it all off, had a aggressive encounter with an 8-year old who beat my right side up, started a strange migraine (don't know if the two were related), cried when I saw my old principal (blaming the migraine and the beating earlier, of course), and had a severe case of the drops (where I cannot put ANYTHING in its place without it jumping back out at me and hitting me on the head!).

Anyway, I had placed the sunglasses down since sunglasses are not considered "professional dress," and my intern and I were talking to parents and students about the music therapy room.

Working in a special education facility, I do not often meet family members of my clients. About half of my students are part of the residential psychiatric treatment facility and the other half are bused from as far away as 70 miles from the facility. So, last night was a time to meet family members and get some more clues about why my students act the way they do - diagnosis or family.

I had a chance to hear from parents about what their kids say about music therapy. One father asked if I would be interested in getting a couple of violins - I told him I would not say no! He told me he would be sending them to school soon. Oh my! Others told me about the instruments their kids had at their homes. We had instrument demonstrations, and I asked students to tell their parents about what we did in music therapy - always a revealing exercise!!

One student, "B," has been at the school for about four months now. He is a day student and brought his parents to the music therapy room to meet me. B is an adolescent with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. He is 15 and very verbal. I met his parents, spoke to them a bit about what we are working on in group and individual music therapy, and reinforced that he was doing well in music therapy. As they were leaving the music room, I thanked his mother for sending him to our school. She stopped in the hallway and said, "No. NO. Thank you for having him. We are not used to him running out the door in the morning to get on the school bus. I used to get called every day to take him home. You know, he said the other day, 'Mom, I'm not nervous about school...So, thank you!' "

You know, my horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad day dissolved right then and there.

A kid who had been struggling in his school found a place with us.

This happens often at our facility. Regardless of your feelings about residential or long-term treatment facilities, many students experience their first successes in school at our facility. All of a sudden, they are no longer the strange kid who flaps his hands or the girl who can't speak clearly. They are simply part of the group. Their uniqueness is just part of the environment rather than being the subject of stares and teasing.

Did I mention that I love almost everything about my job?

I hope that when you are reminded of the reason why we do the job we do that you are able to savor the moment. I'm going to...