A Purple Handprint on a Blue T-shirt: An Interview with Sue M.

I arrive at the Balloon Classroom around 12:30pm, the students who attend the half-day Capital District Beginnings Preschool Program at The Children’s Place in the Empire State Plaza have just headed home. Having worked in the classroom as a student speech pathologist for the past few months, I know the scene well: the classroom is in disarray, having taken a heavy beating by busy-bodied toddlers all morning. Sue M., the head classroom teacher, is wearing the sign of a rough day on her shoulder—a child’s purple handprint on her blue t-shirt. Debbie, a classroom aide, attempts to scrape random specks of food from the tables and chairs. After a half an hour, things finally settle down, and we find our seats on the floor of the reading carpet.

I’ve been here a few times, and you are always busy. What are your actual job responsibilities?

Oh my god. Planning programs, working towards meeting each child’s goals, planning lessons, coordinating services, supervising assistance, behavioral intervention responsibilities. I guess that’s most of what I do, in very general terms.

How long have you worked for Capital District Beginnings?

I’ve worked for Capital District Beginnings for, oh, 21 years.

You’ve been working for beginnings since I was born.

[Debbie, still busy cleaning the classroom, laughs] [Sue laughs] I knew I was old, but yeah, I guess I started for Beginnings in September of 1987. So 21 years. Wow.

With all those years in this field, what have you found to be the most rewarding aspect of this job?

I love just seeing progress. It’s cliché, but I just love when you see the light bulb switch on, and the child all of a sudden gets it.

Also the gratitude of the parents, they are so thankful for everything we do, and all the growth they see in their children. When I see that, I know I am doing the right thing. It’s very rewarding.

I can understand that. Seeing the progress some of the children made just first semester was very rewarding for me, especially for my first experience in this setting.

I think that’s why so many of us can come back every day, year after year, and do this.

What’s the most disappointing aspect of this job?

I think it is very difficult when parents don’t get involved, or when they don’t carry over the learning that’s going on in here, into their homes. It makes you think, sometimes: Why do I bother?

Why did you choose to work in the setting you are currently working in? Why a self-contained room?

Call me crazy, but I like children with severe disabilities and behavioral issues. It’s hard, and challenging, but it’s what I love. I probably am crazy.

[Debbie laughs: Aren’t we all?]

I like being in charge of my room, and setting up my own team and really being able to do what I want to with the children.

With all your experience, I am sure you have great advice to offer. What would you tell someone just entering this job field?

[Debbie jokes: Run!]

[Sue laughs:] Run fast and don’t look back! No, no, you have to love it. The kids will know; it’s hard to come here every day if you don’t really love the job and the kids. Some days are better than others. But you really have to love it.

Hence the purple handprint?

Exactly.

What is the craziest thing you’ve seen in your time as a special education teacher in Albany?

Oh my god. That’s so hard. Well, just the other day I went on a home visit, and I went to get out of my car and there’s this large group of men standing in front of the building I needed to go in. As I tried towards the door, a fight broke out and a knife was pulled. You just think: How can you blame the kid for his behavioral problems when this is happening right here?

Wow. That is insane.

You see it all, and after a while it’s not even that crazy, you don’t even think about it as being something absurd, it’s just another day.

How does being in the State Plaza buildings affect you as a teacher?

Oh I love being here. It’s on the bus routes—so their parents can come and visit the classroom and their children. It’s nice to be able to get the kids out in their community. We can go to their firehouse, we can go to the food store that their parents shop in, we can get them exposed to these social settings. Many of their parents don’t take them out with them, because of behavioral problems, so this is definitely nice. We have access to so many things—the museum, McDonald’s, a post office, craft shows, car shows, all these great things and we don’t even have to leave the building.

Is it hard to say goodbye to these kids that you’ve had in your classroom for several years? Or are you sometimes, honestly, happy to see them move on?

Wow, great question. The first few years, it was devastating. Now I know that my life wouldn’t be the same had I not had some of these children in my classroom, I cannot imagine my life without them in it. But you know when it is their time to leave. It’s not as hard to let them go, when you know that they’ve changed you.

I had a hard time just leaving for the winter break—I missed the kids a lot. I hadn’t expected that.

Aren’t they little buggers like that?

Interviewed, Edited and Condensed by Morgan E. Schutz