Consider

Consider the fact that for three and a half hours a day I will have possession of your child. Consider that I will determine what they learn at school, what skills we focus on, what communication strategies we utelize, what materials they access, and what experiences they encounter. Consider that you have to trust me with your child for those three and a half hours with nothing more than my notes home to you and your non-verbal child to tell you how the day has gone. Consider the fact that there are eight children with special needs in my class competing for my attention and that I work extremely hard to make sure everyone's needs are met at all times. Consider that my telephone conversation with you, the child's parent, is taking place before I have even met the child and my brain is automatically forming opinions and conclusions based on our conversation whether I want it to or not because that is how we are hard wired as human beings. Consider the fact that I am going to be appearing in your home every other week for the remainder of the school year, either like a long lost friend or a thorn in your rear depending on how our relationship turns out. Consider all of this carefully before you start to insult me during our very first telephone conversation as I schedule a time to enroll your child in school. Consider that perhaps it might not be appropriate to question if I am "old enough to teach" or if I "will look older when we meet you" because those are not questions that are likely to win you a friend. Consider that informing me that I sound like I am fifteen on the telephone is not going to assist your cause any and might just cause you to sound like a creepy dirty man. Consider that no school district is going to hire "a teenager" to teach a class of beautiful, precious, adorable, and very intense children with special needs. Consider that in order to be a teacher you do indeed have to go to college ad have one of those nifty paper thingys they call a degree and yes, by gosh, I did get me one of them. Consider that it is also inappropriate and rude to ask me about my nationality, especially after I have just been interrogated about my age and education. Consider that perhaps, just perhaps, you could have waited until you saw me before deciding that I was "too young to be a teacher" and questioning me about it. Consider that now, I am leary of you and while I still look forward to teaching your child I dread having to deal with you in the future. Consider that you may have just earned your self the Creepy Parent of the Year award, and it is only October. Just Consider.