Everyone Should Have To Substitute

The job market for high school English teachers in Wisconsin was completely flooded when I graduated from college.

So, I substitute taught in the days and tutored students in the evenings. Those years were horrible for me financially. However, those two jobs were inestimably important for my development as a teacher.

I would go so far as to say that everyone should have to spend at least two years subbing before they become a regular classroom teacher.

I learned to appreciate all that the other disciplines and subject areas had to offer for students. I showed up to sub for the agricultural science teacher one day to find the directions for first block directing me to follow the map he’d sketched out and drive to a local farm.

When I got there about half a dozen student vehicles were parked in the gravel yard of the farm. The farmer was standing in front of a front-end loader with a buffalo carcass suspended by the rear legs. He proceeded to bleed out the animal and demonstrate how to properly gut, skin, and break the animal down into different cuts of meat.

Regardless of what you think about meat eating vs. vegetarianism vs. veganism you cannot deny the power and importance of a high school student learning exactly where his food comes from.

And you also would be surprised at just how large a buffalo’s lungs are.

Through subbing I also learned to go with the flow and pick my battles. As a substitute teacher I experienced fights, threats, tantrums, depression, boredom, harassment towards me, and harassment towards other students. And once a student even pierced her own nose in class.

A major part of my job as a substitute was keeping a clear head and a calm demeanor. How does one react when a student is shoving a safety pin through her own septum?

I said nothing. I noted it in my sub notes and moved on with the day. She had violated no school rule as she did this to herself. Maybe she already had a septum piercing and she was simply inserting the safety pin for some sort of shock value? She hadn’t disrupted class. She seemed to be paying attention to what the class was doing otherwise.

I stayed calm and kept the class orderly. Of course this wasn’t my initial reaction. I wanted to scream, “What the hell are you doing?” I thought about sending her to the office. I suppose I could have/should have called home, but I figured if this fit some sort of self destructive behavior her regular classroom teacher would recognize it based on the notes I left.

I felt that all calling home was likely to do was cause more drama for a young person who clearly was already dealing with lots of drama. And this is just one of many things I learned about teaching from my subbing experiences.

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