Working and interacting with children has always been an activity that I enjoyed. From a young age, I constantly heard comments such as, “You should be a teacher when you grow up.” or, “You would make a great teacher.” These comments were usually made by older family members witnessing me giving lessons to my stuffed animals and were probably more of a comment to support a young child’s imagination rather than legitimate observations, but they planted the seed in my mind that one day I may become a teacher. As I grew up, I started to realize other interests that I had, but teaching was always in my mind as a second option if my original plans proved inconceivable. Even though this thought of teaching was always on my mind, I realized that I …show more content…
According to CDC (2014), “In the past decade, the United States has experienced an increase in children with autism from one in 150 in 2000 to one in 68 in 2010.”, and Barnhill et al. (2011) states, “A shortage of personnel certified and trained to teach these children currently exists.” This means that by choosing special education as a career, I have placed myself into a pool of people in very high demand. This is exciting for anyone solely for the fact that it means one is almost guaranteed a job after graduation; for me it is exciting more for the fact that it guarantees me the opportunity to help children, than for the guaranteed job placement. With special education being such an in-demand field, I will almost definitely be able to be placed in a classroom soon after graduation and start working to help children with learning disabilities. While I will only be able to help a small number of the millions of children worldwide living with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other learning disabilities, helping to make a difference in those few lives is worth more than anything in the world to those children and their families, and that is what makes it all worth