substitute teaching

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2001 : May : 2

substitute teaching
By MIMMSY

sharon: the deplorable situation you describe
seems to be par for the course. Subbing is an
extraordinarily frustrating occupation but so
can "regular" teaching be. I ought to know. I
was one of the "privileged"
to teach in the San
Francisco Unified School District for many years.
I taught English, first in two inner-city schools,
then in a "trade" school, then in one of the city's best schools, made so by the very high
percentage of Asian students. Please forgive
reverse racism, but it happened to be true.
These kids worked their butts off; prepared
round-table

discussions, went to the library
to do research (this was pre-computer age) and
actually worked in the library. However, I got
bumped from that lovely perch, and sent to the
trade school. It wasn't all that bad, but
eventually I got fed up with the incompent
administrators, the lackluster staff, all the
politics, curruption, etc., and went down to
District headquarters and resigned. Tenure and
all. Mad, mad, mad. But hard and stressful as
it was (this was 20 yearz ago) I haven't regretted
my decision.

Well, onto subbing. I eventually worked as a
private tutor, worked in public relations, taught
extensively in adult ed. programs, and, of course,
subbed to fill in the time.

With my lifetime credential and all my experience,
I was treated as crappily and disrespectfully as
someone who'd wandered into the school fresh of
the streets.With few exceptions, I was disdained
by the clerical help, the instructional aides,
the teachers, and certainly by the administrators.
Basically, subs are just "thrown" in the room, and
expected to serve their time, turn in their keys,
and leave. Administrators take no notice of you;
in fact, one dippsy woman principal used to utter
a quite audible "ugggghhh" in my direction whenever she came abreast of me in the hallway.

Now, I'm "retired" (ouch, without pension -- I
took that money out) and thankfully, got an
inheritance of sorts when my father died; I also
get Social Security. But it still seems like
"scraping by" at times, so I sub.
And this last assigment has convinced me that
I'll have to go on a rice-and beans diet and
stop, so wretched can it be. This week, I
subbed for a "special ed" teacher who had got so
fed up with his class he took the week off and
went to Hawaii. Left all kinds of dittos of
stuff the kids can't do (they can barely read --
eighth graders) and can only add/subtract with
their fingers. To top it off, they have had
about three different teachers since the beginning
of the year. They fight, curse, totally refuse
to do any classwork, threaten me and the aides.
It 's a totally no-win situation. I had been
forced to call for administrative help a numberof times, but the principals, vice principals and other of their ilk simply ignore
me, and they ignore this class -- try to pretend
it just doesn't exist.

So, I know exactly what you're feeling. What to
do? Is it necessary for you to work every day?
I in future will accept no multiple-day assign-
ments. I never know what I'm getting in to.
And as for having "surprises" sprung on you --
you go for English and find the teacher has one
class of English, three of soccer, one of math,
child-care, or whatever damn things they teach
in the schools nowadays. And the dispatchers
(most California districts have computerized
"sub-calling" systems don't let on at all what
the teacher's program really is. It 's a total
bitch. I don't know why the subs csn't get
organized, have a separate union, or whatever.
After all, we're supposed to be "scarce" now.
I think that's the only answer to fair treatment,
organizing. Maybe we can pull this off.......

Mimmsy in Sacramento, California
e-mail Mimmsy @ Yahoo.com