Angeles Office Of Education, I ended up taking assignments as far away as West
Covina, San Gabriel, and Monterey Park.
rented out building along the North side of the inland valley city. The moment
that I walked in, the students laughed at me because I looked like the twin
brother of the full-time teacher on site. The teacher I was covering for, Mr.
C., had kept my phone number in his records. He had requested me many times
over the previous months, in part because I had been very successful in an
alternative ed class in Lynwood, where he had been assigned the previous year
before serious RIF notices began rifting staff all over the county.
Finally, I took an assignment at Mr. C’s new placement. He
was not fired, yet, but was rather sent back to a faraway school, yet still
close enough to his Pasadena home.
before class started. Most of the students seemed friendly enough. They thought
I was pretty funny, too, making the most of the startling resemblance that I
bore to the full-time teacher, Mr. G.
Of course, when class started, the conflicts started up
immediately. Four students walked in late, with no sense of remorse about their
tardiness. Students began talking over me, as well. I was trying to get their
attention, lead them through the assignment.
three of them were attentive and respectful. Some of the young ladies felt
entitled to talk back and talk over me. When I asked a few of them, they
refused. The defiance of a teacher is a serious matter, one which left
unchecked threatens the cohesion of any classroom, sending the signal that the
students can do whatever they want and get away with it. I was determined not
to let anyone get away with anything. I had no problem summoning staff for
support. The secretary was flustered, certainly. She cajoled students to
behave, but the students had shifted in the casual and usual attitude of
disrespect routinely reserved for substitute teachers – such as myself. Having
endured such abuse before, having relished the respect and support of probation
staff in the juvenile halls and a wily, steely secretary in Lynwood, I had
learned that I possessed the courage and the charisma to stand up to anything.
That day, I refused to back down. After the first hour of class had ended, Mr.
G. strolled on in to check on me.
“Listen,” he tried to comfort me. “You are working to hard.
Just let the students talk, as long as they are not talking over you.
“ But that’s the point,” I fired back. “They are talking
back. They are not listening to me. And I resent that you are making it my
fault. You cannot run a school like this!”
regarding students’ disrespect. There is no excuse for letting young people get
away with talking back to their teachers, even if to them I am “just a sub.” I
know who I am, and I knew and believed then that I no longer had to tolerated
concerted insolence from a bunch of high school drop-outs and miscreants, and I
refused to take the blame for it.
When I saw that the teacher did not respect my point of view
on the matter, I decided that I would just go home. I resolved to contact the
site administrator, vent my grievances, and leave. Mr. G. scolded me “You
should have known what you were going to be dealing with when you took the
job.” Once again, he was blaming me for the students’ rude conduct. And I had
the prevalent support at other schools where staff stood by me and suspended
students who fought with me. I refused to take the blame for doing my job and
commanding respect.
that if I felt that I was not professionally able to complete the assignment, I
would get written up. I forcefully
explained to the distant bureaucrat that
no one should have to put up with disrespect. Going off like a pre-recorded
message, the site administrator told me once again that “if I was not
professionally able” to do my job for the day, I would be written up. I hung up
the phone, stuck and disgusted. Either way, I was getting squeezed, between
unruly students and overruling administrators. This dynamic plagues educators
in public schools throughout, and no one cares.
that I would stay on, he breathed a sigh of relief, then promised to remove
from my class those two students who had caused the most trouble.
The next thing that he told me caught my attention for the
better:
“ I respect you for standing your ground, for having your
limits.’ Imagine that! I commanded respect and was duly recognized for it – yet
this tacit praise I received following the threat of walking off the job.
about twenty-five students – I noticed that a number of students had also
calmed down, even backed off, with surprising regard for a teacher such as
myself who was not afraid to state that he had limits.
When I returned to the Hombres y Mujeres Nobles, the sheriff
on site also commended my stalwart opposition to the rude crew of students. “I
understand what you did. You should not have to put up with disrespect.” That
day was the first time that I had received props for threatening to leave an
assignment.
the alternative ed communities, if the only way a teacher can get any respect
is when he threatens to leave. Substitute teachers simply do not deserve less
than respect for the nonsense which they are forced to tolerate on an ongoing
basis.