A six year old boy accused me of grabbing him by the neck and choking him

[BadgerMom]

56. I have been a substitute. I have taught in my own classroom for many years.

There is no comparison, in my experience. I realize my experience is now a couple of decades old, decades that saw conditions for education professionals deteriorate, but classroom teachers have a number of things on their side that subs do not. First, the administration is more invested in them in that they have been through more rigorous interviews and credentialing. They have more faculty support because they are part of the faculty and they all deal with the same community, administration, parents and students. Full time classroom teachers also benefit from the goodwill of the students, current and former. A well thought of teacher with years of experience who has parents and younger siblings clamoring to be assigned to that instructor’s class has far fewer issues. When you have a class for a full year, you have rules in place that in the best circumstances are decided upon in the first few days of classes by the teacher and students. They have buy-in. The bullies don’t get as far when the entire group of people in that room have made the rules the troublemakers are breaking. All of that is to say I have immense respect for substitutes. They are so very necessary to the full time teacher. Many times a full time teacher will request a particular sub with whom they try to work so each knows the other’s ways and the makeup of various classes. The sub knows the class rules which are best posted somewhere.

These are all ideal circumstances though. As a sub, I was terrified every time I stepped into a classroom with which I was unfamiliar. The phone rang early. The job was described. It could be AP physics in a stable school or a special ed class with an uber-competent aide and few students. It could be a pe, choir, drama, band or shop class, subjects in which I have little to no knowledge. It could be a class in which the full time teacher had little control him- or herself and which became chaotic regularly even with the regular instructor. The kids could be terrific or ready to target the sub.

Substitute teachers get paid less than teachers, already not a well-paid group. Yet they face immense challenges and receive little respect, sometimes not even from the full time staff. They deserve SO much better.