Half of new U.S. teachers are likely to quit within five years because of the demands of teaching according to the Washington Post. However, for special education teachers, the demands can be even more difficult, yet those who commit do so for a simple reason: they love their students.

“The kids keep me going,” Jennifer Fischer, special education teacher, said. “Obviously you have your frustrating days. Being able to make a difference and being in the teaching field for as long as I have now, you have those students who come back and say, ‘It really meant a lot when you took the extra time to help me with this,’ and you have students who ask me, ‘Where did you go to school? What did you do? Can you help me?’ Stuff like that keeps you going and you form a strong bond with your students.”

Along with having an impact on her students, Fischer said the best part of her job is being able to help students on a deeper level.

“I love what I do every day. Every day is different and it is never the same routine,” Fischer said. “When a student gets it or breaks through those walls or gets at the deeper understanding, it is such an indescribable feeling. When you kind of get that ‘aha’ moment, I do not think there is anything better.”

Matthew Milazzo, special education teacher, said that he teaches special education because he wants to prepare the students for life after high school and support them now and in the future. Being a teacher in the Transitions Program, he is able to help students from ages 18 to 21 experience employment and perform daily living skills.

“My drive comes from the fact there is an extremely limited number of opportunities for our students moving forward. So I think some of the things that drives me or where my passion comes from is filling that gap. What do their lives end up looking like after? Who is out there pushing for it? I like to focus in terms in what we can do on an individual basis. I think there can be a ton of opportunities and there are a lot of people who want to help. I think we work with a lot of students who want to be a part of our community . . . and who can be productive citizens. The question is, why not? Why can’t they have what everyone else has?”

Milazzo, who has been a special education teacher for four years, said his students teach him as much as he teaches them.

“For me, one of the biggest things you have to have is patience. Also, I am a firm believer that you have to be able to allow someone to fail and not feel like you have to hold his or her hand through it,” Milazzo said. “There are many times I tell my students I don’t want to be your teacher, I want to be like a guidance counselor for you. I want them to experience life. I want them to experience what it means to be independent people, and with that is going to come some failures, but we have a safe environment here where we can help navigate through that. When you are working with students who are moderate to severe in profound disabilities, I think it is extremely important to allow that to happen.”

After teaching for sixteen years and loving every day of work, the students have taught Fischer to be mindful of different perspectives.

“Teaching has taught me patience. It has taught me to look at things through a different lens, regardless of labels or special education,” Fischer said. “Everybody is different and teaching special education brings that forward. There are a lot of ways to get things done and you just have to keep trying until you find the way that works for you. My students have taught me to be more open and try those things and work until you get it.”

Before deciding to major in special education, Jennifer Fischer started to discover her passion through her brother and her participation in certain clubs.

“My brother was diagnosed with ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] in grade school, so I learned a lot of patience working with him and I started participating in clubs,” Fischer said. “When I was old enough, I started working at NWSRA [Northwest Special Recreation Association] with special education kids and it grew from there. When I went to college I knew I wanted to work with kids, and I actually did early childhood special education along with K-12 special ed.”

Sydney Shadrick, sophomore, may be 22 years younger than Fischer, but she realizes she is following the same path discovering her interest in teaching special education.

“[Working with kids who have special needs] has been one of the most fun things I have done in my opinion,” Shadrick said. “It is so uplifting when you see the kids you work with every day. Working with these kids, I have become a more sympathetic person, and I am a lot more patient towards people in general. It has given me a lot of perspective just on life in general. When I am having a bad day, I just go see them and talking to them makes my day that much better.”

Shadrick also discovered her passion through working with special education students at young age.

“I have wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten. I started thinking about special education in sixth grade when I first met Nicholas Pesce [junior], who is one of my brother’s friends and is really nice,” Shadrick said. “We hung out together when we both were in the musical, High School Musical, and we were buddies. As for college, I would really like to go to Michigan State because they have a dual majoring program; I would be able to major in both elementary education and special education, and then I can choose my career later on.”

Throughout high school, Shadrick has continued to volunteer her time and be involved in the Special Needs Athletic Program (SNAP) and the Buddy Program. She has also recently started working at SRACLC (Special Recreation Association of Central Lake County).

“When I was in eighth grade, my mom’s friend’s daughter worked at SRACLC and recommended that I work there because she really enjoyed it,” Shadrick said. “I volunteered a year and a half before I started working there and ended up loving it.”

Considering all the special needs activities she is involved in, Shadrick has discovered a career option.

Milazzo’s experience and discovery of his passion were different, considering he first received his Bachelor of Science in Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, before going to National-Louis University to receive his Masters of Arts in teaching for special education.

“For me, I was working in sports and in business and I had coached. I was kind of out of it for a couple of years, and I really wanted to get back into it,” Milazzo said. “One of my old coaches that I played for got a head job at a high school. I told him I wanted to get back into coaching and he said there was an aid position in the high school that he could get me, and I would be able to start coaching. At the time I thought, I will go back to school, I will get my degree in business because that was really what a lot of my degree was. I ended up getting a one-to-one aid position with a student who had cerebral palsy. I had no idea what I was getting into, to be completely honest. The student I was working with needed a lot more help than any of the other students we currently serve in the district right now. I did know that my day was amazing because I got to work with basically every student in our school, the whole spectrum. During the day I was working with students who had high needs with communication and social skills, and then I was going to coaching and working with kids who were getting scholarship offers for college football. My personality was always that I wanted to make change and help some way, and once I was exposed to it, it was like, ‘Wow this is really something I can make a difference and I like it,’ which is more enjoyable. Growing up I knew I always wanted to do something like what I do today, I just needed time to shape it. I went to National Louis University to get my Behavior Specialist degree and I am back in school to get my Principal Endorsement’s license. As the program has grown, I feel like my responsibilities have grown so I want to be able to handle those responsibilities.”

Despite their different experiences, Fischer, Milazzo, and Shadrick each said they enjoy spending time with the special education students because the students have an impact on them as well.

“Along the times that I have been a teacher in special education are also the times I have started to have a family and see growth,” Milazzo said. “I am much more patient and understanding of people in need. It has made me look hard at both sides of the story. We have got Ferguson, enhancement investigation, and things like that, and you start to see different sides of it. Your brain almost gets trained to interact with people like that. You start to see the positives on both sides and learn about all the grey areas, which is a beneficial skill to have.”

Along with developing as a teacher throughout his years, Milazzo said he loves to see the student’s daily growth.

“My world consists of what are the daily improvements,” Milazzo said. “What are the changes in their lives that are impacting them in the long term? It is definitely more satisfying for me on a year to year basis to see a student who had a certain behavior or did not have the ability to socialize and then, all of the sudden, I have students who meet on a Friday or Saturday night and go see movies together. This year for the Stevenson and LZ football game, we all met for dinner in the cafeteria and then we went to the football game. For three quarters of the students that night, it was their first time experiencing a high school football game. Their smiles on their faces and interactions with others and seeing them having the opportunity to be like any other 18, 19, 20 year old is not necessarily what they always get to experience every day. For me, that is by far the best part of my job and keeps me teaching to make a difference.”