How Can We Fix the Substitute Teacher Shortage? Give Kids Back Their Time.

Yesterday, I was out sick from work. Fortunately, I was able to find a substitute teacher to cover my classes—school districts across the country are facing severe shortages of substitute teachers, prompting some districts to change licensure requirements or to conscript teachers into covering classes during their prep time.

Like I have done for the past six years when I was out, I set an assignment on Google classroom with specific instructions for the sub. And when I checked it at the end of the day, I had…about 50% completion. 

The sub I had was great, but this is par for the course for days when you’re out as a teacher. Missing work as a teacher can sometimes be just as stressful as being at work - having to make plans that subs can implement and the inevitability that many students won’t do the work.

So…why do we have subs? What other professions require you to find a substitute when you are out sick? When a professor is sick or is otherwise out, class is canceled. Certainly, younger students need constant supervision for safety reasons. But does a 16 year old really need to be sequestered in a classroom for 45 minutes when little instruction is occurring? 

The problem relates to how the United States views education: it is about students sitting in a seat in a classroom serving time rather than the learning that is occurring. This is a result of state laws mandating certain amounts of seat time, compulsory education laws (that create a culture of students being required to be at school at all times), and parents’ and teachers’ fears about students being unsupervised—and the resulting infantilization that occurs when students’ agency is taken away from them.

Over the past fifty years, education and parenting have increasingly become about structuring every minute of a child’s day. This is despite research that shows that over-structuring students’ time can lead to: 1) stress (imagine as an adult being shuffled from one room to another every forty-five minutes for seven hours in a row); 2) stunted executive functioning (students who don’t have opportunities to structure their own time don’t develop the ability to do so effectively); and 3) a lack of creativity (good ideas come being able to sit and think and daydream instead of being ordered what to do). 

With the drastic sub shortage, school districts ought to entirely rethink their policies regarding teacher absences. It is certainly conceivable to give students a period off when they don’t have class. Indeed, this is done in many other countries. And giving students time to decompress and socialize might actually increase engagement in other classes. Especially at the high school level, there is no really reason to keep students incarcerated in a class with a sub where little real learning is occurring. And we already have models that shows this works: in New York City, 10th-12th graders are allowed to leave campus for 45 minutes for lunch. As of 2005, about 25% of high schools in the US had open-campus lunch (although that number had been trending down since 2000). In countries like Finland, high school students have breaks in between classes, rather than just five minutes of passing time, and if students don’t have a class, they do not need to be on campus.  

As adults, we would justifiably resent being forced to unnecessarily sit in a room for 45 minutes. Instead of forcing students to sit in a classroom when a teacher is out, why not give high school students back that time to do what they want—whether it’s studying for another class or (gasp!) talking with friends. Or schools could provide on-campus options for students or public spaces for students to use.

As a teacher, I know it would be far less stressful than having to create sub plans that are mostly just a farce.

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