Stories from the substitute

I was eating lunch with the early elementary class that I was substitute teaching for the other day and we were talking about who grew up in Abilene and who moved here. One of the little girls told me about how she moved here from another town and her daddy was still in the other town. I asked why she moved and she told me about how her mother had to call the police and she told the police that daddy was hitting her. So they moved away, but the little girl still misses her dad.

That is one thing that I like about subbing. There are a lot of things that are strange or just plain different, like the fact that very few first graders seem able to say "Mr. Vaught" without coming up with something that sounds Martian (so kids all over the place just know me as "Mr. V"). There is the inevitable kid every other time I sub that gets sick and I'm dodging stuff, there is the knucklehead who tries to get laughs while I'm not looking, and there is ALWAYS the one sweet kid who is just annoying because she is constantly clamoring for your attention.

But the stories you just inevitably overhear keep it real.