The Good Sub

 What does it mean to be a good substitute teacher?  That depends on where you are.  Are you working in a public school system?  Does that system have deep pockets, vulnerable to being sued at the drop of a hat?  Is the culture in a volatile state of existence? Does the surrounding culture sustain a poignant sense of racism? 

     Your options in exploring creative educational behavior, patterns and curricula are limited by the society in which your school is situated.  You can't do just whatever you want.  The society sets the broader picture, regardless of what others may say. You push the limits and you will find out truly who your overlord is.  That is the culture at large in a vibrant democracy just such as the United States has become.  Rome was said to be on the verge of collapse for several hundred years before it finally collapsed.  Doomsayers were publishing draconian pronouncements about the impending collapse ... which never quite came on the predicted schedule (tomorrow!) ... until it one day did.  But it was then not so expected.  As the decades drew closer to the eventual collapse, the Roman empire had become less open to public criticism, and you didn't see much writing which put the government in a bad light.  So as long as we have an abundance of government criticism in the public eye, we should not worry about the resilience of the state structure.  But when things of such nature become strangely silent ... watch out.  Make a plan B escape route and try to save the value you have seen in the sphere of society in which you have worked and spent your days.