December 20, 2005
Savoring the small victories
Special education teacher Chris Jetzer struggles with those who need the most help:
...the short, blue-eyed, blond-haired boy looks disappointed as he leaves his classmates to join Jetzer for math. The child sucks his index finger and twirls himself past a row of lockers as he walks down the hall...Despite the 7-year-old's cherubic appearance, he is a "flight risk," Jetzer says. The child has transferred out of two schools, threatened to kill people and started fires. The boy once told Jetzer he wanted to kick him in the groin, but in the next breath talked about chickens.The child has severe learning disabilities in speech and language and also has an emotional behavioral disability. He is one of seven students Jetzer is responsible for as a first- and second-grade special education teacher at Jerstad-Agerholm Elementary in Racine.
Jetzer, 26, is in his first year in a challenging profession - one in which a third of teachers nationwide leave within the first five years. In Wisconsin, more than twice the number of special education teachers transferred to general education positions than vice versa in 2002-'03...
Jetzer is especially concerned these days about a first-grade girl who accidentally wet herself four days in a row earlier in the year. She is severely learning disabled and lives with her mother, who works a second-shift job...
Jetzer gives the girl as much individual attention as possible. When the girl works independently, Jetzer checks on her to ensure she's not daydreaming. He laments the child's greatest challenge - retention of material.
"If she can learn the alphabet by the end of the year, I'd be happy," he says. But amid the challenges and setbacks, there are gains. His reading students now can decode words such as fall, king and together. Three months ago, they could read only short words such as he, she and the.
God bless him. I sure couldn't do this job.