September was finally over. I had made it through my first month as a teacher in a New York City public school. I had been in shock for the entire four weeks. Children were fighting in the halls and in the classrooms. They were coming back from lunch with black eyes! A lot of the stuff that I had bought with my credit card for my classroom had been “misappropriated.” I hadn’t even paid for the stuff yet and it was gone. My students were mean to me. They also couldn’t read or tell time. Many of them, I thought, were far too old for the third grade. None of my well-meaning and creative behavior systems had worked. The ladies in the main office were horrible. I had been punched in the arm by a crazed student and threatened by his mother. My voice was hoarse and I felt numb, but I was alive. Oh yes, I had survived my first month with very little support from the administration and a whole lot of after-school tears. If I had had the energy, I think I would have been proud of myself.
I walked into the main office on the first day of October. I moved my card to the “In” side, picked up my attendance folder, and was sneered at by the payroll secretary—a pretty typical morning routine. I checked my mailbox and found an envelope with my name on it. It looked official. There was something inside that made it appear bulky. The payroll secretary muttered something under her breath so I headed upstairs to my classroom. The letter inside the envelope read:
”Dear Valued Faculty Member,
Your perfect attendance this month enhanced, strengthened, and demonstrated to students the importance of consistency, promptness, and regularity as we focus on achieving higher academic standards………”
I pulled out the Snickers bar that had been tucked inside. The whole month of September flashed before my eyes, with its classroom brawls, failed attempts at behavior modification, and salty tears of hopelessness and despair. And then there was this Snickers bar. I thought about it some more. Although peanuts, chocolate, and nougat could hardly make up for the hell I had been through in those past thirty or so days, all I could do was smile. The sheer irony of it all was better than nothing. I took a deep breath and let October through my classroom door.
