THE TEACHERS

We sat in a circle. My mother and her two coworkers, Jen and Laura, leaned back into wicker porch furniture on the undercover patio. At first, I thought the buzz through my body was the vanilla latte I had that morning, nipping at my fingertips and belly. But, a wave of excitement overtook me. I was sitting in the middle of a story rich gold mine. I set up my phone camera and pushed record. 

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And then the stories started flooding in. One after the other, the teachers shared their frustrations with kids, parents, and administration. These accounts transitioned with phrases like, "that reminds me of..." and "I had that happen to me" or "I actually experienced the opposite". 

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After an hour and a half conversation, I thanked them for their time and headed home to pick out the stories that felt the most alive. The most curious. 

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Here are the eight stories that I chose to include in this study. Their trends and diversities, stories, anti stories and ante-narratives give us an up close look at how the stories of children with behavioral struggles affect the overall narrative and understanding of the issue. 

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