Ghetto School

I am so worried about my future. Really, really worried. The budget cuts in education are going to be drastic. I will probably be able to find a job somewhere, at some school, but it's probably not going to be at the school I want, teaching the grade I want. To be truthful I am really feeling like I want to leave teaching. But the economy is so bad... nobody is hiring, everyone is cutting back. I may be forced to keep teaching even though it's not what I want anymore, and thank my lucky stars for any job I can get! I worry that next year I will have to change schools AGAIN, which means another year of setting up shop, getting used to the kids, leaving my friends and starting over, and reinventing the wheel if it's a different grade level because I can't use the resources I have built up. I have to find new ones.
Yesterday I had an incident with one of my students. He pushed by me, then made a fist and rushed up as if to hit me. I am going to press charges against him because to do otherwise would jeopardize the safety of my colleagues. The students and the other teachers were really shaken after it happened, everyone feeling kind of unsafe because this student just completely freaked out and really came close to hitting me. So I am thinking, I need this? I need to work my ass off for THIS?? Really?? Then at lunch another teacher said that the big fight that happened the other day was on YouTube. I went home and checked, and sure enough, one of the kids had recorded the fight and posted it. I know that every generation shakes their heads and says, "These kids today... What is society coming to?" That's where I am at. I can't relate to them, I don't understand them. I am shocked and horrified by some of them.
It's possible that after I calm down I will think what I usually think... that I can't imagine not teaching, and that any other job is going to be boring and stupid. Lord knows I've tried enough of them. In the end, the rewards of teaching outweigh the pain and sorrow of the job. Still, there's a part of me that wants to finish my math degree, be an actuary, and never have to deal with other people at all.