He is elderly; significantly older than any of the other substitute teachers who enter our building.

He took the job to be a reading teacher for the day. He told me he had been looking forward to working on reading with the students.

We desperately need assistance for our students who read well below grade level; or not at all.

It is fifteen minutes into the day, and he shows up to my room, dragging his backpack and his winter jacket. ‘I’m supposed to be here now’ he says resignedly. ‘It’s the old ‘bait and switch’ in this school’. ‘Ah…I’m sorry’ I respond. ‘You know this is how you lose good substitute teachers in a building; in a district’. He is clearly frustrated.

‘Agreed’ I answer and I shake my head.

We get settled and then the phone rings. I answer. ‘They want to speak to you it seems’ I say. I know exactly what this means.

He takes the phone gingerly, placing it to his ear. I turn away because I already know. They are going to move him again.

He hands the phone back to me and says simply, ‘They want me to take over an entire first grade class’. He mentions a name of the missing teacher. ‘Oh’ I say quietly. ‘That’s a tough one’.

He picks up his backpack and his jacket and after a minute, looks at me and says, ‘I would never, ever sign up to substitute for a first grade class; not at my age’. I can only respond sympathetically, ‘I agree with you and I’m not sure why administration never learns’.

He moves out the door and as he leaves he says, ‘I think I’m going home. I don’t have to take the job’. ‘Nope’ I agree.

We won’t see him again; not when ‘bait and switch’ remains an option.

Within a few minutes, he is gone and I check the ever evolving substitute teacher list. Another teacher in the building has been pulled away from servicing her students for the day and has picked up the first grade class of miscreants; another group desperately in need of help.

January blues…