Is It Inherent?

At the Big One’s school yesterday, all of the kindergarten teachers were in planning meetings all day. So the teacher’s greeted their classes in the morning and then left the students with substitute teachers. The Big One’s teacher let us know in advance and then reminded us again yesterday morning that she would be on campus and would be checking in to see how the day was going.

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Knowing that my child does not like change, I was a bit concerned but figured we needed to wait and see how the day went.

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When I picked her up, she seemed just like normal. The substitute just smiled, verified I was her parent and then moved on. I missed the quick report from her teacher about how the day went, but that’s okay.  I knew she was concerned with making sure the right kids when home with the right parents.

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So when we got home, I asked the Big One how the day went with the substitute teacher. She said everything was fine. WHEW! I thought.

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Then she went on to say that they didn’t get to have any free time in class. I asked her why not and she said that too many kids were on yellow or red;   Which of course means the other kids were getting in trouble and their behavior clips had been moved from green to either yellow or red.

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So I want to know, they are in kindergarten and have been for only a few weeks. How do they know to misbehave when there is a substitute teacher? I remember kids always got in trouble and tried to get away with all kinds of things when I was in school. I just don’t remember it happening in kindergarten. So it is an inherent thing? When the authoritative figure is gone, they automatically go into rebellion mode. Or is it that the substitute teacher has less patience than the regular teacher?  What’s going on?

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Of course, my child stayed on green all day, thank you very much.