The Brink
Take a minute of your time today and read this editorial from a newspaper in Chicago. It’s written by a principal who is also married to a teacher. A few choices lines from it:
Children are not okay. Teachers are not okay. Schools are not okay.
We knew this year would be hard. We did not know it would be like this: a kindergartener throwing chairs, a second-grader tearing up a classroom, a middle-schooler swearing in your face and then falling to the ground in tears. Every teacher I know feels like they are failing.
We need more. The front line is not holding. Teachers. Substitute teachers. Fund them, find them, get them here.
I have a dog in this fight. Two, in fact. I am a substitute teacher. My soon-to-be-wife has been a teacher for more than a decade. Many of our friends and family members are also educators. We don’t have to hear about what it’s like in schools — we live it every day. And while I haven’t been in a school in close to 10 years (before now) I can say that things are very different from what I remember.
I don’t think it’s simply a generational thing. Some of it is. Smartphones and social media exist now in a way they didn’t when I last stepped into a classroom. But there is something more going on here. Freshmen and Sophomores have always been slightly immature. And the kids usually run the gamut from the weird ones who act like 90-year-olds to the ones who still need naptime and a juice box. But this crop of kids? I haven’t seen behavior like this since I stopped working in an early education Montessori school (6 and under).
They’re undisciplined. And not in the way teenagers usually are. It’s hard to describe exactly what is different about them. There’s a… wildness about them that years of normal schooling should have shaped out of them. There’s also a coldness, closer to cruelty about them. They lack self-control and the ability to calm themselves. Sometimes it feels like all the empathy within them has been drained out. They get pissy and angry over the smallest things. It feels like every day is a new battle over nothing. Often, it’s many battles, many times a day. It’s exhausting.
I am proud to be a substitute teacher. I accept that I am not a teacher like licensed teachers are. I didn’t take many education courses in college. And even though I got very good scores on the Massachusetts Teacher Exams I have never bothered to get my license. That doesn’t mean I am not valuable to the school I work for. It also doesn’t make me immune from many of the same stressors full-time teachers face.
I honestly don’t know why anyone would sign up for that life. It’s often thankless and difficult. I am fortunate to live in a somewhat progressive state. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live and teach in one of these insane places passing ridiculous anti-history laws. The fear is real and it’s already impacting the curriculum.
Even though I think I bring a lot of value to the school I work for, I do not feel completely appreciated. For starters, I don’t even work for the district, even though I go to the same school every single day. Instead, I am technically an employee of Teachers On Call, a service that places qualified, licensed subs in schools. In theory, this system mostly works. It saves already overworked school administrators the hassle of having to cultivate and maintain a stable of reliable subs. It also provides a great infrastructure that automates many time-consuming processes.
For someone like me, however, who is the building sub (meaning I go to school every day and work whatever classes I am needed in) I feel shortchanged. I’ve covered a variety of subjects. I’ve tutored students one-on-one. I’ve even worked in the library. I am as much an employee of this school as anyone else. Yet, I do not have sick time. I don’t have health insurance. I don’t have any of the legal protections or union representations that other employees of the school have. I only get paid when I work. Again, with occasional subs, this setup makes sense.
None of this is intended to be a complaint. I knew what the deal was going in. I am very happy to be at the school I am and working with the people I do. But I think it highlights how little importance substitutes are given by districts and the population at large. We’re an afterthought, something seen almost like a luxury or liability. We aren’t. We are vital members of the education community. And I think it’s time we’re shown that importance with fair compensation and a bit more respect.
If there is one thing this pandemic has taught us (or should have) it’s how fragile and underfunded our system of education really is. There should (and could) be dozens of people like me in every school. Maybe even more. Why are we sending money out to private companies (who aren’t doing their work for free) instead of investing in people within the community? What other vital public service works like this? There’s no Police On Call, as far as I can tell. We don’t refuse to pay cops if they don’t arrest someone or solve a case every day. If crime goes up we don’t cut their funding, instead, we usually bump it up. More overtime, more officers. And yet with education if a school system does poorly on state-mandated testing, they risk losing funding or grants.
Investing in education will ALWAYS be a win. The kids we educate today become the workers of tomorrow. They end up starting businesses, running for public office, or becoming doctors. They cut the grass, serve our food, or any number of professions. It doesn’t make us money in the short term but in the long run, having an educated populace makes for a better future. Every single time.
Pay for teachers should START at six figures. Maybe a little bit less in some areas that have a low cost of living. And until we have federally funded college, teachers (and any other public servant) should have their loans forgiven in 5 years. And while we’re at it, let’s make the forgiveness process a lot easier. Want to know how? You submit a W-2 via a website that shows what school you worked for. There will be a database that matches your name/social/whatever to verify it. Boom. That’s it. Do it five times and your loans are forgiven.
We also need to OVERSTAFF schools everywhere. We can have mandated ratios. For example, for every 15 students there needs to be one licensed teacher in the room. For every 3 kids on an IEP or other special education plan, there has to be a paraprofessional. And for every 15 staff positions, there needs to be an in-house sub ready to jump in whenever there’s an absence. Subs can do a lot more than we do right now. Use us to tutor kids one-on-one who are falling behind. Have us man the hallways to keep things in order and kids where they’re supposed to be. Hell, I’d go out and shovel the sidewalks if they asked me to.
WE ALREADY DO A LOT OF THIS. One of the things I learned from co-running a private Montessori school is that the state requires a certain number of adults per child. With infants, we HAD to have one teacher for every 3 infants. If we didn’t, we could lose our license or be shut down. Why don’t we do this with older kids? Money. That’s why. The state rules for early education generally only impact private businesses and family daycares so the state isn’t the one paying the dole. It’s business owners. And what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If we feel it’s necessary to hold businesses to these standards then we should do the same for the rest of public schooling. It just makes sense.
Will it be expensive? HELL YEAH. But there is literally nothing more important than investing in the next generation of citizens. They are the ones who will shape our nation for decades to come. What could be a better use of our money than that?
I’ll wait.