Letter: Lack of support disheartening for frazzled teachers

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

A Marine veteran did not last a month substitute teaching at the school where I work. His students were throwing paper balls and pens at him, among other things. So substitute after substitute is run in front of these children, who over time begin to think of it as a game: "Run off the substitute."

Then when a teacher comes in and tries to instill some order, she is supposed to laugh off a drawing of her as a Nazi, and another drawing showing blood pouring from a gunshot wound in her head. If that drawing was not a serious death threat, it was at the very least an attempt to undermine her authority. Is it any wonder that there is a shortage of teachers when they get abuse instead of support?

Why are students able to run off substitutes? One substitute quit after a week because he was given no support in reining them in. What were the school district administrators doing about these children? Did the parents care that their children were given a parade of substitutes as teachers?

Teachers are expected to take 30 to 40 heterogeneous children an hour and teach them things they often have no interest in, with very little support in dealing with disruptive and rude students. Teachers do not have paddles with holes drilled in them anymore and a phone call home may result in the parent blaming the teacher.

I've been begging people to look into the teacher shortage and its effects on children to no avail. The apathy and ignorance in this state toward public education is obvious, from the second-worst per pupil funding in the country to the one-sided exposure in the media.

JEREMY M. CHRISTENSEN