Substitute teachers have the hardest job in the building.

At Lawrence High, we respect our teachers, but we rarely respect substitutes.

Even students who are normally very polite and hardworking in class act out when a substitute walks in the room. Because the substitute has little authority to punish the students or grade them on their work, students find no reason to treat them like they would a permanent teacher.

Substitutes have to deal with students who switch seats, talk over them, throw things across the room, and make jokes at their expense.

It’s almost as if we have higher standards for substitutes than average teachers. If they play hardball and lay down the rules, we act annoyed and think they are mean. When they let us do whatever we want, nothing gets done.

Very few substitutes can establish themselves as both cool and respectable in a matter of minutes, yet that is all the time they have to get the class under their control. On top of this heap of responsibility, they have to attempt to teach resistant students about topics often foreign to them.

The most successful substitutes are able to run a class with poise and manage to inspire students after teaching them for just an hour, and we should commend them.