A Day in The Life of a Substitute Teacher # 1

This post was originally written on February 14, and was published first on Qassia.

Today, as a substitute teacher in a Bay Area high school, I worked in five different one-hour classes of "multicultural education." The kids were supposed to take several printed sheets, one of them about the Mission period of California history, read them, and then answer on a separate sheet of paper about 15 questions.

I passed out the sheets to each period's students. I would estimate that only about 20 percent of the class actually then did the work they were supposed to do, even though I read to them their instructor's statement that they had to pass their work back in by the end of the class period.

They just didn't care.

These were all 9th graders. Ninth graders are normally young and full of stupid, though there are exceptions. You can see who these exceptions are just by looking around at the class twenty minutes into it. The good kids, the ones from families who have told them there is a connection between high school grades and what you get out of life later, are working at their lessons. The others are talking, playing music on their ipods, doodling, or just staring off into space.
There was one young lady sitting near the door of the class today who had long, thin red braids. She was doing nothing, just staring into space. I asked her if she wasn't bored. In a hostile voice, she said "I'm not bored," and continued staring. Not once during class did she touch the lesson sheets I had passed out or make any motion to do any classwork.

When you're a substitute teacher, the kids try to get away with all sorts of things. They simply do not treat substitutes with the respect and courtesy they teach their normal teachers. We are at a disadvantage because we don't know them all by name. A name is a handle you can use to exert control. "Morris, sit down and stop talking or I will have to write you up."

There is one kid who has shown up in many of the classes where I have taught never actually belongs to the class he is in. I learned his name the other day and addressed him with it. "Damn," he said. "I hate it when a substitute learns my name."

Today in one of my classes five kids started playing craps for money. This is completely against school rules. As soon as I picked up the phone to call security and have them hauled away, they stopped and walked out of the classroom. None of them were supposed to be there anyway.
Every class every day brings something different.