I concur...

Read Mathinaz's response to this.

I agree with her fiery response.  I feel like I don't have to say much else about the topic.

Other than my retort to that evil letter writer, "Hey friend, I don't like to say the pledge of allegiance because of the phrase 'under God.'  It was added to the pledge in the 50's to weed out the communists by Eisenhower's staff.  Does that make me a commie?  Or worse, an agnostic?" 

And let's all not forget the fact that this person was a substitute teacher.  Have we not thought about the idea that those students didn't want to learn FROM HIM?  Perhaps we could think about the dynamics of leaving that this adult has no idea of.  Students in the area that he taught have trust issues.  (Oh, who wouldn't when everyone is leaving them...all of the time)  They feel a need to test the people who try to take authority of them, to see if these people are worthy enough to gain their trust. 

We teach them to NOT trust everyone.  We teach them that some adults only want to use them (for drugs, for gangs, for money...whatever) and we tell them to be very careful of the people who they spend their time with.  They are supposed to hurry home from school and they are rarely allowed to play outside (especially in the dark) because of the adults they cannot trust. 

They also learn that they should not just give away their trust easily.  If they learn to trust an adult, then the adult LEAVES THEM (parents, aunts and uncles left to care for them and then taken away, teachers who give up on them, neighbors and friends, etc) they get hurt.  VERY HURT.  So they put up walls so that they don't have to deal with the pain of loss.  

What have I learned from being in the school for 4 years?  If students trust you, then they will respect you. 

So, I say back to you, substitute, what did YOU do to gain the students' trust?  What did YOU do to gain the students' respect?  OH, nothing?  Well no wonder they treated you like shit.  They knew you were going to leave them.