I am happy to report that in my years as a substitute
teacher, there was one school where I was guaranteed to command a decent amount
of respect.
At Jane Addams Middle School in Lawndale, the principal
Frank Noyes commands a great deal of respect with students, but more
importantly with his staff. A fatherly type who brings a motherly overshadowing
elementary flow to the school, Noyes would visit classes on a frequent basis, almost like a “broken
window” move, putting out fires before they started. In one class, he pressed
his students to watch their language on his campus, as he refused to tolerate
“F-bombs”. When one student escaped with a snide smile, the principal tore him up
in front of the students – “You think it’s funny?!” Taking the student outside,
Noyes continued to upbraid the young fool for making a face about the whole
thing.
This administrator expected his assistant principal to visit
every class where a substitute had been assigned for the day. On one occasion,
I was covering a class of sixth graders. One kid became argumentative early on,
refusing to listen or to be quiet. When I called security to have the student
removed, he continued to talk back to security. I tried to calm down the
situation as best as I could, but to know avail, as he kept whining and
interrupting security ---“You know what,” the security staff told me, “I am
going to take him to the office, because now he is arguing with me.”
Fifteen minutes later, the young boy – Darren – returned
quietly class to pack up and pick up his stuff – he was going home for the day.
That was not the only time that I witnessed a student
getting sent home for disrespect towards a substitute teacher. While passing through
the main office during lunch time, I witnessed a parent, apparently breaking
away from working, sitting in the front lobby seething. “What do you do?” He
barked as the principal walked into to summon the parent into his office.
Another student was being sent home for the day, and the Dad was just going to
have to suck up the inconvenience.
That approach is both valuable and necessary – parents have
to start shouldering the responsibility for their kids’ disrespect, especially
at the middle school level, when a character of rebellion can take hold at an
early age and not shake loose unless a cop,
a court, and an indictment are involved next.
The principal had no problem suspending rude dudes. His
staff also prepared a short list of particularly difficult students, reminding
them periodically that they were on probation with the administration at the
school. As students were divided into academic clusters labeled according to
Ivy League schools, the teachers for each cohort also acted as unofficial
deans, checking in with substitutes at the end of every day to find out how the
day went. Any students that I wrote up, they would follow up and hold
accountable. They really backed up their substitutes at the school, and there
was no surprise to me why so many guest teachers requested to cover classes at
Jane Addams.
I should not neglect to mention that Noyes’ fatherly
approach to the whole school was very enduring. In many ways he operated like a
real “father of many”. He participated in after school activities with the
students and the staff. He even prepared a school calendar highlighting student
activities throughout the previous academic year. The administrators and front
office personnel also distributed gift cards wishing happy holidays and happy
birthday to staff. The family atmosphere certainly contributed to the high
morale of the school and provided students with a safe and secure environment
for learning.
Leuzinger High School even lost one off the high school math
teachers recently to the middle school, and normally educators in a high school
setting avoid middle school if they can, as the
early-adolescent student population is more challenging than the high school
set. Yet Noyes’ administration and the familial connections were a boon and a
draw for a teacher who was looking for more support and less hassle. I am certain that that math teacher is having a successful time in a school where even substitutes can get the job done with suffering neglect or disrespect.
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