Education

A child doesn't become that mean and learn how to lie in a few short years prior to going to school. They're barely out of toddlerhood.

I was a substitute teacher for one year - sometimes in the elementary school, sometimes in middle school or high school - wherever I was needed. The other women in my substitute teacher training classes only wanted to do elementary school because they had children of their own that age and they didn't think they could handle high school. A friend of mine and I volunteered to take the high school classes because we had both already raised our children. Neither one of us was intimidated by older kids. I never had one problem at the high school level. I did have one class in middle school where the list of instructions left for me by the regular teacher about the students in the class was god awful. "Johnny, who sits in the front row and has the red hair has severe anger issues. Try not to set him off." WTF? "Joey is allergic to peanuts and Sarah has to make multiple trips to the bathroom, blah, blah, blah." I quit substituting once I found a full time job and swore I'd never do that again.

Bless you for even taking on this job to start with.