Day 6: Happiness in Getting Dirty

I have worked in the schools for 4 years now. Most of that time has spent has been spent in Special Education.

With that being said, well you can guess, that it is a dirty job.

I don’t know how many times I have ended the work day with bodily fluids on me, whether that be spit, throw up, poop, or sometimes all 3 days if I am really lucky (that is sarcasm for those who don’t know me well enough)!

So yesterday I spent the better part of a day at restraint training, or the technical name is “Non-Violent Crisis Intervention Training”. They teach you how to work with kids that are in crisis and are being unsafe.

They teach you the steps to take to deescalate and hopefully not have to go hands on.

This is a process I know well and pride myself in thinking that I am pretty darn good at it. At the general education schools I have worked at before I am always the one asked to step in when a crisis is happening.

I pride myself in not going hands on if I don’t have to because it kind of eats my soul when I have to restrain a child.

But I digress.

At the training the presenter made an enlightening comment. 

The training packet talked about “professionalism” and he said there is nothing professional when you are working in education. (His disclaimer was professionalism was the pressed suit, hands off, everything looks good on paper approach).

He said when you are working in education everything is a little dirty. Whether that is coming home covered in bodily fluids or having to deescalate students when in crisis, it is dirty.

I have struggled with this dirtiness, not so much the bodily fluids a shower can fix that, but when working with students that are escalated and in crisis I find a part of me takes on that crisis. It is that dirty part I can’t brush off.

But when we were practicing restraints on each other yesterday and we were having to really get into each other’s personal space the trainer laughed and said “get on in there, it’s going to be dirty at times” (referring to arm pits).

That was the moment where I was able to finally understand the beauty in the dirtiness in the job.

This whole year has been a dirty. The students I have worked with have been extremely tough, the staff I have worked with have been even more difficult and it has gotten dirty and I struggled with that.

I subconsciously had this idea that yeah, education should be professional. We meet the criteria of a, b, and c and it is all-good.

NEWSFLASH ROSEMARY, nothing works that way.

People, kids and adult alike, are all unique and that makes work and life in general dirty.

I never realized how much I hated the dirty part of human interaction, I avoid conflict like the plague and when big emotions happen I run the other way. I am learning though that I have a strong moral compass to do what is in the best interest for kids and by staying the education field I know things will get dirty and I am learning to accept that.

So today (well yesterday) I am happy to embrace the dirtiness of life whether that is, bodily fluids or emotional distress.

Being human is dirty business.  Let’s celebrate and get dirty!