Well – I subbed at a local elementary school today. Given the demographics, I thought the kids would be a little more on task and on their goals. They were, sort of.
But there was a bit of an “accident” today. And of course – as the teacher – I got blamed for “not letting them go to the bathroom.”
Now, let me just clarify something here. If you are a sub you can relate. You get asked to go to the bathroom ALL day long. Literally 5 minutes after the bathroom break (where, yes, the WHOLE class got a chance to go to the bathroom) I already had kids asking to go to the bathroom – again!
I do not exaggerate when I say to you that within 15 short minutes of going to the bathroom, in come the requests. I have people wait since we had literally just gotten back. But after 30 minutes or so, I’ll let people start going. I only had one person, the entire day, tell me it was an emergency.
Most of the kids who go to the bathroom are what I’ll call triple B (BBB) – bored, bathroom breakers. There’s a sub. They are bored. They go to the bathroom. These are, by far, the majority of kids who ask to go to the bathroom.
So one of the kids had an accident and apparently walked around quite a while afterwards, too. I asked why no one told me, they said you didn’t let her go. Ok but that doesn’t explain why, if she had an accident, why no one, including the student themself, told me.
I felt less guilty when they also told me this has happened to that person before. So, we had a talk, I said if it’s an emergency you have to tell me. When the class goes to the bathroom, you do all your business in there and don’t come out until you are done because you can’t walk around with “mess” on yourself – it’s not sanitary.
These were kids who are 7ish, by the way, not pre K or potty trainers. So, I can only guess it was an issue of nerves. I felt bad for the poor kid. But having taught pre K for several years, this isn’t exactly a first for me.
And so went my day. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.
The Substitute Diaries 