The teacher of the classroom I am employed in is moving on to another workplace (congrats by the way). Before she moved on, she reminded me something which I've had to teach other people before. She told me, (paraphrased) "If you do everything, and fix everything, then no one else will need to help, and the participants are going to suffer for it."
She's a bit of a pragmatist, but it's a piece of vital, and multifaceted wisdom that we continually forget as we try to hold together our weird little families. If "I" do all the work, then there's no reason for my employer, my team, or the participants to work together. All that we teach each other is that I am immensely capable, and that people should rely on me.
Which, by the by, she reminded me that this was despite knowing that I WAS immensely capable, and that people probably COULD rely on me. You can imagine me standing proud and tall in a superhero position if you'd like.
But the profession of paraprofessional isn't to fix everyone's problems for them. Hell, if anything, our job is to create more problems, and toughen people up. Before you question that, remember- everything that we do is for the participants. Everything. So when we spend fifteen minutes waiting for a student to open the door without prompting them to do so, it's not because we're letting people rely on us and letting people get off easy. It's because we know that if we do everything for our participants, their quality of living will be worse, and that we will have essentially failed in our duty of trying to create a more independent person.
It goes against our better nature, and sometimes you have to catch yourself doing it, or hope that one of your teammates has the bollocks to remind you. When you see a participant spilling their food all over themselves, your first instinct is to run over and help. You don't want them to have to lose part of their lunch because they don't have fully developed hand/eye coordination (also, you probably don't want to have to clean up afterwards, letsjustbehonest). But if you never let them fight through their lunch period and try to get their food for themselves, you eliminate the opportunity for them to ever really develop those skills, which affects so much more than that very moment. With developed hand/eye coordination, you get a person who can open doors, pick out choices, perform work, bathroom... By 'fixing' that problem for them, you're stopping all those possibilities from ever happening.
But if I haven't made it clear by now, people with special needs aren't some strange alternative lifeform that works differently than you or I, parapro or rocket scientist (though, if you are a robot or an alien, maybe we work a little differently. Also, thanks for reading to any robots or aliens out there). The psychology that stumbles a person with special needs from developing hand/eye coordination, or prompt independence, or emotional intelligence, or whatever... is the same psychology that stumbles a paraprofessional who never gets to deal with a crisis, bathrooming, or community interaction. And, for that matter, it's the same psychology that stumbles a classroom that never has to deal with the graduation of a student, paraprofessional, or teacher because the rest of the team continues on as if nothing ever happened.
If I decided to keep everything going without the teacher, what would happen when a new teacher DID get hired? Being loyal to a previous teacher's ideology, classroom setup, and planning might get you through a week or two when you're holding the fort, but when the new teacher arrives, it puts you at odds with them, and often gives them an uphill battle to fight against to get new insight put into place. And what does it gain you? Plans which haven't been updated for the duration of the transition between teachers, frustration, and possibly enough stress on that new teacher that it might cause them to rethink taking this position. Or, worse, an enemy which you have to deal with for the remainder of your mutual cohabitation. Remember that teachers are not having a turf war, that we can learn from one another, and that we're all in this together.
And if the organization decides that my effort can satisfy the room and allow them to take their time to find a replacement? Let's face it, I don't get paid enough to be as amazing as I am. My guess is that you don't either. Why do you want to worry about all the planning that a teacher has to do, when you're not making teacher pay, and may not even be qualified to handle the position? Ask yourself: Do I really want to deal with the parents, administration, and write things out like IEPs, while I continue to be paid as little as I am, more or less (because sub stipends are not quite the same as a for real pay upgrade)?
Finally, consider what happens to your team when you, eventually, find another workplace, find yourself with health problems, or leave the job for some other reason. Sure, you might have been able to play the circus act without a high wire, but what happens when you get rid of the safety net as well?
I am thankful that the teacher I worked for reminded me about this. And now, you can be thankful for my reminding you about this. Remember: We're a team. There may be a "me" in team... But they'll have to get ripped in half to do it. And what are you left when me leaves? Ta.
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