Hey, I like how you are sitting in your seat!
Look at those eyes, I love how you are looking at me! I appreciate how you didn't spit on me, but let's try not to spit on the table either, ok, buddy?
Who made your hair look so nice this morning? You look GREAT!

It's hard not to recoil when a 250 pound 20 year old with the cognitive ability of a 2 year old drools all over a lego and then hands it to you with a smile, or when he runs the length of the room and slams into you, wanting to play. But I stand there and welcome him. His drool doesn't matter because when he sees me he smiles an honest smile, and I know that he knows that I like him unconditionally. He gets very few genuine smiles at him during the course of his days, I'm sure. And the little guy who has a stomach tube and can't coordinate his muscles to swallow loves when I feed him, because I tell him when to open his mouth, when to close it, and when his lips have met. And I quietly let him know with eat mouthful that I think he is doing a wonderful job and I am proud of him. And he gives me a thumbs up after every swallow. I thank God every day that I don't have to work that hard to eat and drink.

Anyway, the classrooms have for years it seems, had door decorating contests at Christmas time and it is FIERCE! So I wanted to get into the act. I don't have a classroom, but I do have an office. So I talked one of our artistic teacher assistant's into drawing me an open mouth with a tongue hanging out. He didn't ask too many questions. I xeroxed the tongue onto cardstock and had each one of my speech students color a tongue (and uvula too if they wanted) and then glue on snowflakes and glitter. It was quite a detailed project. I hung them all on my "Door of Tongues." The staff didn't really take me seriously, I think, when I told them my plan.

Today we had a about an hour of snow. And I had this 8th grader in and he was making his tongue, and laughing a little about it. He's one of the "B.D." kids, a pretty sharp cookie, but in trouble all of the time, and he has some little things we work on in speech. And he asked why we were making these. I showed him the poster I made that said "Catch a snowflake on your tongue." He looked a little confused. I asked him if he had ever stood in the snow and caught a snowflake on his tongue. I was astounded to hear him say "No." WHAT? Never tasted a falling snowflake?!?!?!?

"Let's go," I said.

We went outside, no coats, and we stood in the parking lot getting all wet, and he opened his mouth up but had to be coached to stick out his tongue. Finally his tongue came out and then he giggled. With a big smile he looked down at me .

"Well?" I grinned. "What did it taste like?"

"Kinda like....water," he laughed.

"Exactly," I answered.

We went back in and he knew he was smarter and more worldly from the experience.

And THAT is why I love my job.

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