Saturday, November 10, 2007

I've Heard Of Bad Substitute Teachers, But...

Every teacher has a horror story about a particular substitute. I recognize up front that subs have a difficult job, one I certainly wouldn't enjoy doing. That, however, doesn't excuse those behaviors we've all observed at least once in our teaching years--behavior like this, for instance.

"My child does not know what a prostitute is and she shouldn't be learning that at school," said the unidentified student's mother...

"She said sugar is cocaine, McDonald's should be called 'Crack Donald's' and Burger King should be called 'Murder King' because the hormones in the food will kill you," said the student.


The students were 5th graders.

5 comments:

DeborahSmith said...

So I read the article and this woman seems certifiable. I am not very familiar with teachers unions etc but what exactly do they have to gain by not firing her? What do they get by protecting her?

Darren said...

I don't think they have unions as such in Texas.

I'm not convinced that people should always be fired for one lapse of judgement or one mistake, but I'll agree with you that she sounds like she'd be better served in a padded room.

Ellen K said...

Qualifications for substitutes vary from district to district. Most require at least a college degree, although I have my doubts about some that have taken my classes. We had one lady that even the kid complained about. She didn't let them do the work-it was still on my desk clipped where I had left it. She evidently talked about her sad life and how everyone and everything conspired against her. She also wrote up two of my most responsible and capable students for daring to ask if they could work on the assignments that were due at the end of class. I filed a formal complaint, as had four other people. But, she is part of a discrimination lawsuit against the district, so they are wary of doing anything that gives the appearance of retaliation. She was finally banned from my campus, however I have heard she is still subbing on others. And that doesn't include the surrounding districts in which she also subs according to her profile. What is worse is that many of the "rich" districts are so strapped for money that instead of hiring a replacement for teachers that are ill and leave or who move or who are fired for cause, they put long term subs in place. A friend of mine, who teachers in a nearby district, has a freshman daughter who had a substitute for most of the school year. The subject was Algebra which is a core subject for testing purposes. The teacher left due to her husband's illness, but instead of trying to find a qualified math teacher, the district had the department head funnel assignments and basically the kids taught themselves. This attitude basically refutes the logic that once computers are in place, teachers are unnecessary. Virtually the same thing happened and many of these kids failed the course and the state testing.

Unknown said...

I've had one guy argue that the entire world oil reserves were going to be completely gone in 5 years and that we were all going to be forced to be vegans, that was 3 years ago now. I've had another that explained how he wasn't really a teacher just a couple of years ago and just stumbled into a classroom and started teaching and he ended up becoming a sub, same guy explained how in the "good old days" one could steal alcohol from the local businesses that would chill it outside, a whole lot of learning going on with that one. Don't worry there are plenty of the crazy inappropriate subs to go around. Oh I almost forgot the one that compared Jews to rats, but wasn't doing that in the context of a lesson on Nazism, just kinda threw it out there.

Anonymous said...

yeah i dont like many subs. they usually dont know what they are doing unless they have subbed before
they dont know how to walk the line