My sister, who taught math in the Houston public schools for more than 20 years before moving to the Univ. of Houston), says that it has become fairly common, not only in Houston but also in a lot of urban school systems, to have long-term substitutes who are not really qualified in the subject matter...it happened to her when she took a fair amount of time off when our dad died...she also mentioned a couple of cases she knew of in sciences and in history.
Don't get a swelled head over this, Bill. Our Governor Kasich of Ohio (You may have heard of him.)once opined that you could give anyone a textbook, tell him to teach what's in it and "He'd do a pretty good job."
It's said that when he was told that Ohio ranked 47th in Education in the nation, he asked, "Out of how many?" but that may be just a rumor.
Another anecdote...In the early 1960s, when my mother wet back to work (4 kids rapidly approaching college age), she started as a substitute teacher in the Indianapolis public schools. She was licensed in music & English, but frequently got called for other things. If the school expected a teacher to miss only a day or two, what they mostly wanted was a substitute who could maintain order; Mom was good at that, having had a lot of practice at home. She subbed in math on occasion and at least once in biology. I would guess not much teaching occurred, but I'd also guess the class behaved itself.
8 comments:
Is this a for-profit/charter school? Sounds like it!
Isn't this also the school district that arrested a 13-year old for paying for her lunch with a $2 bill?
/Again, I ask, what are we doing to our young people?
Is our teachers learning? Not French, anyway.
He only knows one words, bonjour?
Merde!
My sister, who taught math in the Houston public schools for more than 20 years before moving to the Univ. of Houston), says that it has become fairly common, not only in Houston but also in a lot of urban school systems, to have long-term substitutes who are not really qualified in the subject matter...it happened to her when she took a fair amount of time off when our dad died...she also mentioned a couple of cases she knew of in sciences and in history.
Don't get a swelled head over this, Bill. Our Governor Kasich of Ohio (You may have heard of him.)once opined that you could give anyone a textbook, tell him to teach what's in it and "He'd do a pretty good job."
It's said that when he was told that Ohio ranked 47th in Education in the nation, he asked, "Out of how many?" but that may be just a rumor.
And yet he's losing the nomination? How can that be?
As one wag once put it: "Ohio: Cleveland, Cinncinati, Columbus, with Alabama in between."
Another anecdote...In the early 1960s, when my mother wet back to work (4 kids rapidly approaching college age), she started as a substitute teacher in the Indianapolis public schools. She was licensed in music & English, but frequently got called for other things. If the school expected a teacher to miss only a day or two, what they mostly wanted was a substitute who could maintain order; Mom was good at that, having had a lot of practice at home. She subbed in math on occasion and at least once in biology. I would guess not much teaching occurred, but I'd also guess the class behaved itself.
I'm pretty sure that good behavior is what a school wants most from a sub.
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