Graduating

It's the end of the year and my kids are leaving. Some of them are just leaving for the summer, while other ones are leaving for the next chapter of their lives.

Yesterday was preschool graduation. All of the kids who graduated made such huge gains since they entered our program. I laugh when I read their old initial evaluation reports and think back to where they were when they entered our program. Some of them were horribly unintelligible. Others of them had extremely poor receptive language. And others of them weren't talking at all. And looking at them now, you wouldn't even think they were the same kids. Many of our kids graduating have caught up to their chronological age peers and can start elementary school just like any other child. They don't need us anymore. They are intelligible, they can understand what you're saying, and boy, can some of them talk. I love it when a parent grumbles to me that their child talks too much because that means that I've done my job.

My fifth graders also graduated today. Their graduation was harder for me than yesterday's graduation. At least I'll be able to see my preschoolers walking around on campus next year and I'll be working with some of them. But my fifth graders are leaving elementary school and although I'm sad that they're leaving me, I understand that they're heading to bigger and better things. These are the kids that I started with, the kids that I have spent my days with for the past three years. There were days when I wanted to strangle them and there were days when I wanted to hug them. These were my kids and it was hard to say goodbye.

I tell people that it is my job to work myself out of a job. All of my kids either graduate from our school and move on or they improve so much that they no longer need me. And while my job is rewarding and I love it when my kids don't need me any longer, it's still hard to say goodbye.