SPECIAL written by Diana Dunsworth Baker

                                                               SPECIAL

                                                    Based on a true story

                                                         Diana Dee Baker

                                                    Copyright 3, 21, 2010

(book cover: photograph by Chuck Baker)

Note from the author:

All names (except my own and those of my husband, son and sister) and names of locations have been changed to protect the students, faculty, staff and parents identified in this book. 

The contents of my story are based on actual events.  It is a story near and dear to my heart.  I hope you enjoy it.

Dedication:

This book is dedicated to my husband, Chuck.  Thank you for your words of wisdom, your kind words of encouragement and your absolute faith in me.  You make all things possible.

Preface

On a hot and muggy day in the middle of August, I cautiously approached George Washington Middle School, located in south Oklahoma City, with a sudden sense of unease.    This was middle school.  And I had come here on purpose.   I needed a change...a challenge...an adventure...didn't want to get stale...stuck in the mud.  I wanted to stretch my muscles.  It would keep me young, or so I hoped.  After twenty-six years of teaching, most of those years at the high school level, one would think I should know better.   

Elementary school is a wondrous place filled with laughing, running, happy children; where teachers are up there with God, mother, America and apple pie; where little ones bring their teachers apples and Christmas gifts and Valentine's Day cards; where teachers wear theme sweaters and vests and share recipes and darling little stories of preciousness.

High school is a golden place where one can have a meaningful discussion with a student; where the hours are great; where students enjoy hanging around in your room, telling you their deepest thoughts and secrets making you feel all important in their lives; where there are football games and basketball games and home-coming and pep assemblies and prom.

And now, here I was, standing at the threshold of middle school; where it is generally believed that middle school children are not really human beings; where eleven to fourteen year olds are trapped in the land between childhood and adulthood - too old to be a child, too young to be taken seriously - caught in a vast wasteland of hormones jumping, tempers flaring, threats flying.

The building, probably built in the early sixties, loomed before me; mocking me; secretly smiling; knowing.  But I walked through those double doors anyway.

                                                                SPECIAL

Chapter 1

DAY 1

DAY ONE IS THE FIRST DAY OF A period lovingly referred to as "Teachers Work Week" and it is just stressful to even recall it.  In just three days, a teacher must attend mandatory faculty/staff meetings, attend department meetings, attend team meetings, clean, organize, decorate and arrange their room, check out materials from the library, make a substitute folder, draw up a class syllabus and write lesson plans for the first week of school and, in my case, review all special education folders and papers of students on my caseload.