Teacher Or Substitute - Depends Which Defense Is Needed

While I take a break from reading Lee's public autopsy of what happen to Doug Erwin and also a break from exploring "The Old Whitehead Case" all the while finding the comparison of how the two cases were handled may be more than coincidental, I like to read the Gradebook.


Frequent readers of my blogs may have noticed how I make blanket accusations, otherwise known as "broad brush attacks", of how school systems "parse words" to manufacture creative obfuscations to defend what they do. For example, the use of the word "policy" is frequently used to imply "authority" until someone wants to see the authentic policy. The challenger is immediately castigated as a troublemaker, especially if there is no written policy to back up the "authority". This practice may be used against employees, parents or students.

Of interest to me is the article:

"SUBS ARE TEACHERS TOO: Pasco superintendent Heather Fiorentino (left) might take offense that the media have lumped substitute teachers in with certified teachers, but that just plays into the stereotype that subs are glorified babysitters, columnist C.T. Bowen writes."

Let's first examine these two sentences:
.... "The school superintendent's message on the voice mail said she was disappointed newspaper headline writers continued to describe a former substitute teacher, accused of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a high school student, as a "teacher.''"

..."To the average parent and taxpayer, the person in front of the class on any given day is the teacher, whether they are certified, or a substitute."

C.T. Bowen is on to something.

What happens to a parent who complains that their child has a substitute teacher? For months?

I may be a taxpayer, but I don't run the education system that decides who is going to "teach the class".

Maybe there is a convenience for a school administrator to pick and choose when they should defend how "qualified" the person is who was picked to "teach the class".

I can understand how professional teachers and responsible parents would want to work together to ensure that the person who "teaches the class" does a responsible job.

Can parents sign up for the Union?

Would the Union uphold the interests of parents as well as it upholds the interests of teachers?

Just askin'.

Maybe the prediction of the answer could be found in the analysis of the following:

"....If it is unfair to lump certified teachers together with substitutes, where was Fiorentino's outrage four years ago? It was then that a 23-year-old candidate for Pasco School Board — who had worked less than 60 days as a substitute — put out campaign literature touting himself as "A Teacher, A Father, A Leader.''

It peeved plenty of people, including the incumbent and eventual winner, Marge Whaley, the mother of two certified teachers.

Fiorentino, at the time a superintendent candidate, didn't take the candidate down a peg publicly for the resume padding or for being disrespectful to all the certified teachers in the district by falsely claiming he did the same job duties.

No, not at all.

Fiorentino, herself a teacher, voted for him.

When it comes to supporting the rank-and-file educators in Pasco County, the indignation shouldn't exclude political pals."

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How would one know who is a "political pal?"