TruthTeller, see lets pinpoint the problem. You "KNOW" hundreds, that means obviously "you" don't walk in an actual teachers shoes . (much like the people who write the state test and the rest who are not at the grinding stone). Much like you, people don't really know what the profession entails. FYI, most people don't take their work home and if they do it's part of the contract they get paid for. Lets see, state and federal employees don't, rail road workers don't, car mechanics don't, retail doesn't, nurses don't, secretaries don't, city workers don't, human resources doesn't. You my dear friend don't need to know the real truth.

@Hombre - Oh cry me a river! All this (unpaid morning duties, etc.) - it's called being a professional who is paid a salary. I know hundreds of teachers and don't know a single one that comes anywhere close to working the number of hours that any other profession requires. Your post is the typical "blame everyone else for my own short comings" post.

@kar83, my advice to you is to pic a different profession. As a teacher you will be underpaid for your skills, work late hours, work weekends and holidays, work unpaid morning duties, unpaid cafeteria duty, unpaid bus duty, unpaid after school programs, spend summers doing classroom prep, be criticized by parents and state officials who don't know a lick about being knee deep in the classroom, kids who don't have discipline, and have your career evaluation based on a standardized state test that does not differentiate whether a child is or is not on medications, their mental and physical stresses, home environment, or the individual aptitude level of each student (one size fits all test). Plus you have to put up with all the fallout when district administrators mismanage their districts.

AS A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER MYSELF. I HAVE SEEN WHERE TEACHERS AND EVEN THE PRINCIPLES ALLOW STUDENTS DO THINGS THAT WERE QUIT UNETHICAL. I HAVE SEEN WHERE OUR SCHOOL LEADERS HAVE DONE THINGS THAT ALSO HURT OUR STUDENTS VERSES HELPING THEM. ALL THAT IS HAPPENING IS OUR CHILDREN ARE BEING RAISED THRU THE SCHOOL SYSTEM TO BECOME DELINQUENTS AND THE STATE IS PAYING FOR IT. IT IS NOT JUST BAD PARENTING..IT IS TERRIBLE LEADERSHIP. OUR LEADERS IN THE SCHOOLS HATE TO SEE A SUB DO A BETTER JOB OF TEACHING, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE REAL TEACHER KNOWS THEY ARE NOT DOING THE JOB THEMSELVES. THEY WILL HURRY UP AND GET RID OF THE GOOD SUB VERSES A LONG STANDING BAD TEACHER OR PRINCIPLE. OUR FUTURE GENERATION IS IN BAD SHAPE. THEY ARE REALLY A TROUBLED LOT OF CHILDREN. OUR CHILDREN CAN NOT ADD, READ OR WRITE AND ARE GRADUATING WITH HONORS FOR HAVING A THIRD GRADE MENTALITY... SAD SAD SAD

Substitutes are paid very little to do the job. You get what you pay for. Teachers are paid very little for having a college degree as well. We should quit bashing schools and concentrate on the real problem and thats the lack of parenting that goes on at home.....You are in control of your on behavior it is easy to blame someone else and point fingers at someone else. Teach your children to take responsiblity for their own actions!!!

I do agree with you JeanMarie i have had some great subs that did not hold a degree. There are some great substitutes that do an amazing job!

I am a mother of 2 young children working on my teaching degree and it is so sad that this is going on in schools. It is also crazy that it takes atleast 4 years to gain a bachlors to teach but someone that has no college education or little college education can also be put in charge of students. This is not a baby sitting job it is the minds of our future!

I think the most important part of this story should have been about the immoral behavior of the students. The teacher may have been doing an inadequate job, but that doesn't mean all substitutes are negligent. More emphasis should be put on the fact that juveniles think that kind of behavior is OK and that their parents should have let them be exposed to such a bad example.