Since leaving my publishing industry job in September, I've been working as a substitute teacher, hoping to find something permanent. For context, there is a severe shortage of substitute teachers. For good reason. The pay is horrible -- less than what you would make working in a cafe. Some students see the substitute as an excuse for the sort of behaviors you are being hired to curtail. You are enmeshed in some power nightmare of Foucault's -- continually trying to limit minor infractions -- hats, hoots, ear buds, vape pens, phones, face masks -- while the students vigilantly seek to ignore the rules. Of course students, districts, schools, grades -- all these matter in how much work I need to spend as an enforcer. Given all this, there is a pleasure in being a substitute teacher. Subs are needed, after all, and you sense your own importance, in some humble way. You never experience a crisis of meaning. Your presence means some teacher didn't have to step in and had a fr...