Why are substitute teachers always singled out for abuse by the class?

Question

And what things have you done to substitute teachers, growing up?

Answer 1

Because kids know that a substitute teacher won't be there long to have enough authority to punish them or even bother reporting them, and they also see the substitute teacher as someone who might be taking the place of a teacher they love (if that is the case, if they hate the other teacher they might treat a sub right) and thus they misbehave to let the sub know who is boss.

We were dreadful with substitute teachers, I must admit. Once we had a Grammar quiz we didnt' want to take and to stop the sub from making us take it we threw a stink bomb inside the classroom, on some other occassion we sat the sub down and started telling her nice things about her hair and stroking it until she fell asleep and once she was asleep we went out to play, and some other time we had a sub who was Hindu and spoke in English with an English accent, so everytime she tried to talk about guerrilla warfare it sounded like gorilla warfest so we started snorting and grunting and punching our chests as if we were gorillas...poor Pali.

Answer 2

I do not think it is every sub. teacher, but perhaps this is the case with you.
I liked having subs, as they were a change from the norm, and often brought in fresh outlooks and ideas.
I think that perhaps a substitute teacher gives the impression to some students that you aren't commited. You are not there all the time, so you are the Odd-Man-Out. The new guy always catches flack.
You say "abuse". What does that entail?? Physical &/or verbal??
If you receive either of these, ask first if this is something that also goes on in your outside life,and not just at school.
If it is just at the school, then it could be a few reasons.
1) You sub. at a school that harbors delinquents
2) Your attitude about the kids stinks and they feel it
3) they sense that you do not want to make any waves, and want to be accepted, so they take advantage of that. They are kids with young, not fully developed brains. The ydo not have the capacity to reason logically as we do. Everything is "me,me,me"through the teen years.

Answer 3

Substitute teachers normally do not stay more than a couple of days, thus reducing the chances of being punished with, let's say, pop quizzes. A way for a sub to keep from getting abused is to be fun and/or energetic, so that the kids do not get bored and try to prank the teacher.

Answer 4

Subs are in a no-win position. The subs that are too passive tend to be blown off by students. However, the ones that are too dominating for their own good tend to incite the ire of students, who generally see a day when their real teacher isn't there as a license to goof off. As others have already stated, students know the sub likely won't be there the next day, and use this to their advantage.

I remember we had an older substitute in grade school. The first words out of her mouth were something like "Don't try anything! I know all the tricks!" What do you think happened to her with a comment like that?? (I'll leave you to guess.)

Answer 5

Kids do it because that person normally will not be back tomorrow so they have limited power over the class as a whole.

I've never done anything to a substitute teacher but I was in classes where others did and I never felt right about it.

A person should not be abused just for trying to do their job.

Answer 6

Simple: because the students regard the substitute as a temporary guardian whom won't be around long enough to carry out threats or punishments.

Show your hand early on and make reprimands fast and immediate: standing in a corner, sitting in a desk apart from the others or writing a certain assignment before the end of class under punishment of receiving a 0 for the day...

Answer 7

simple. they aren't the normal teacher. There's nothing much that they can do to get you in trouble. Personally I had a really mean substitute one day, she made us take like 30 minutes on each math question! Normally they took 2! At recess we tried to get revenge. My friend wrote a kick me sign to put on her back but nobody had the guts to put it on her. I was the goody goody so no way I would have done it! another time e had a horrible substitute. In the American schools they are pretty strict about what the teachers do! Our substitute yelled at the class clown and told him to shut up! He was agaist regalations. We told the principal and the sub was fired! Why do you ask?

Answer 8

Some things just don't change. Test the new teacher and see how much he/she will take. Substitute teachers sure have to put up with a lot of abuse as well as just plain stupidity.

Answer 9

Some substitute teachers don't know what they're doing. I remember one particular teacher who asked everyone to stand on their desks (too much Dead Poets' Society for that lady). How can you take anybody seriously after that?

Regardless, I treated her like my regular teacher. That is, with respect. My friend though, who was an A student, acted like he had just escaped from jail. He did that for every other substitute teacher. Substitute teachers seemed to have some sort of transformative effect on him.

Answer 10

they're not the figurehead, they're fresh fish.. a newb.

and they don't know the rule of the class or classmates that has developed between the normal brood.

so they're fair game, unless they substitute the class very often... then the tables are turned.

it's a respect thing, almost like hazing... the kids sooner or later develope a like for the person if seen or experienced enough.

less often does a substitute (average) command respect in an instant.

their focus isn't there, it's out of their norm also.

basically displacement is the key factor here... it can make an imbalance and it is an disadvantage.