Column: Teach the change you want to see in the world

Everybody knew what would happen when they saw the substitute walk in the room. The class hadn't seen her around before. She seemed pleasant enough, her cardigan giving off a distinct grandmother vibe, her gentle smile welcoming. Ms. Becker told the kids she had taught for more than 40 years, so she knew how to handle a group of fifth graders. The fifth graders, however, had different ideas. When Ms. Becker turned her back to the class to pull up their lesson on the smart board, a pencil hit her square in the head. Laughter exploded around the room. She couldn't definitively call out which one had done it, of course, but she had some ideas. A group of boys huddled around a table halfway back, nudging their obvious ringleader, clued her in. She had seen their type before. To keep the peace, she moved on to tackle the first problem of the day, learning about the American presidents. A loud boom interrupted her just as she got to James Buchanan's infamous role in history as the president who sat by and refused to denounce slavery or sedition. Just as she was explaining that his inaction spurred the nation into the Civil War, little Darcy hit the floor. Darcy was intently listening to Ms. Becker's lesson when one of the bad actors from the rowdy crowd kicked her chair over with gusto. Darcy's table mates gathered her glasses and offered her tissues and Ms. Becker sent her to the office to check in with the school nurse. None of the boys owned up to it, naturally, and anyone else who may have witnessed it was silenced by the looks in their eyes that promised recess revenge for snitching. In a preemptive move, Ms. Becker made each boy from Table 4 state his name, which she wrote down in a first-strike move. Anyone earning more strikes would be sent to the office. Parents could be called. The boys from Table 4 laughed. They had all switched seats and given the names of other classmates. Ms. Becker couldn't blame kids she couldn't identify. Besides, the ringleader told her, nothing ever happened when Ms. Tuck was here. "Ms. Tuck never got us in trouble! Ms. Tuck told us if she didn't see it, it didn't happen," Ringleader said. "Even if the principal calls my mom, nothing will happen. Last year my parents threatened her too." Well class is different now, Ms. Becker said. Most of you want to learn. Most of you want to get along with each other. Most of you want to go on year-end field trips, right? Ms. Tuck is gone for the year and what is done is done. We can work on getting order back in here together, she told them in her best teacher voice. "Ms. Becker, those kids have bullied us for a long time," a small boy near the front of the room said. "It's true. Last year, they broke his glasses," the boy's friend said. "Ms. Tucker knew about it but she just laughed." Ms. Becker knew that a lesson never taught could never be learned. She had already taken a quick look over the class notes the night before and had seen all the alarming traces of a classroom in crisis: failing grades, rising absenteeism, urgent emails demanding action from the principal that had been ignored or rebuffed. She knew Ms. Tucker had left under less-than-optimal circumstances. "Fired" had been whispered. "Involuntary leave" was all that made it onto the official record. She knew from experience that actions without consequences can kill effort. Why aim for higher grades if hard work isn't rewarded? Why aspire to be "citizen of the month" if playground bullies run things? And why should a fifth grade punk stop hurting others and disrupting order if there is no punishment to curb it? If disrespect is encouraged and respect is unheard of, how could any teacher ever do her job? Ms. Becker took up the projector remote and flipped through the lessons. "I think we're going to hit 'pause' on our algebra today and put aside your social studies, kids. Today we're going to start with civics," she said, her stern gaze lingering on Table 4. "Today we start again." Contact Rini Jeffers @rinijeffersauthorworks, Facebook.com/RiniJeffers, follow her on Twitter @RiniJeffers and rinijeffers@gmail.com.