The Enigmas of Stuyvesant: Substitutes

Despite being a constant presence at school, substitute teachers often are elusive figures, coming and going according to no specific pattern and staying in our lives for short bursts of time. While we get to know our teachers very well, we cannot say the same for their temporary replacements. In an effort to combat that, here are the stories of some of Stuyvesant’s substitute teachers:

RAYMOND VASQUEZ

Substitute teacher and aspiring English teacher, Raymond Vasquez, has worked at Stuyvesant for almost two years. He studied accounting at Baruch College before shifting his focus to English literature, his real passion. “My father was an accountant, my mother was a database administrator, and they both now are programmers, so we’re a very technological family,” he described. “[Accounting] was fun, but it wasn’t my passion, and I realized that quickly, and I always knew that I loved reading.”

Vasquez eventually decided to study literature because he has always enjoyed learning about people’s different interpretations of their reality. “I just saw [the] really profound effect it had on myself and the students around me. Literature can be interpreted in many ways, and every student can take these readings and apply it to life lessons, whether it’s morality [or] whether it’s confidence. I just thought it was a great way for students to become comfortable with themselves and the world around them,” he explained.

Though Vasquez did not major in education initially, it was something that he always knew he wanted to go into. He was inspired to pursue education in part because of his godfather: “My godfather was a teacher for 30 years, and he was definitely a big influence on me. He’s been helping me through this process,” he said.

Vasquez became a substitute at Stuyvesant during AP season, when many substitutes are needed to proctor exams. After he applied, he received a call and shortly after, started a week-long trial run where he was able to get more familiar with the staff and Assistant Principal of Organization Dr. Gary Haber, in particular. “I’ve been here consistently for about a year and a half, going on two years, just helping out wherever I can,” he added.

Helping out means taking over classes full of teenagers for absent teachers, which can be difficult, though Vasquez believes he has found a working solution. “Having conversations with the students, I think it helps. Because the age difference isn’t that great as opposed to other teachers, I can relate, I can understand the conversations that are going on, the trending topics, so [that] helps a lot,” he elaborated.

However, one of his favorite moments while substituting involved laying down the hammer. “It happened recently, about a week or two ago when ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019) came out,” he started. “I had to help one student—it was in science lab. Her table, her group, everyone else saw ‘Endgame’ and so they wanted to talk about it. I walked up to them [and said], ‘Hey guys. No one likes spoilers.’ The student looked up at me and she was like, ‘Thank you so much.’”

When Vasquez is not substituting at Stuyvesant, he is pursuing his Master’s in Education to become an English teacher.

TROY A. BURRIS

Troy A. Burris is a substitute teacher and English as a Second Language (ESL) professor at Borough of Manhattan City College (BMCC). He started substituting at Stuyvesant in 2012, due to its convenient location right next to BMCC.

Though Burris currently lives in New York, he grew up and lived in Ohio until he was 20. “I left Ohio when I was 20 with $12 in my pocket, that’s no lie, and I lived to tell about it,” he recounted.

Burris did not move directly from Ohio to New York, however. “I eventually got into community college after having been [in Atlanta] for six months, finished school there, met somebody and moved to Tampa with them, and was there for three years, then moved to LA, was there for four, then moved to Atlantic Beach. I was there for three [years], before I moved to New York,” he said.

He elaborated, “I chased the sun. I grew up in Ohio. Horrible winters, rained all the time, cloudy all the time, don’t see a lot of sunshine, so I really chased warm winter for a long time. When I moved up north, people were really shocked, people that knew me.”

Burris got his Bachelor’s degree at Georgia State, and later attended a Master’s program at Adelphi, where he got his Master’s in Education, specifically for ESL. At BMCC, he also teaches the academic critical reading and critical thinking classes. From his teaching experience, he has learned valuable skills for education: “Classrooms need to be task-oriented and student-centered,” he greatly emphasized.

From leaving Ohio low on money to eventually becoming a New York City College professor, Burris feels proud of his accomplishments: “We’re lucky that we [Burris and his partner] ended up where we did and being in a place where we can actually buy an apartment in the building we were renting in,” he said. “I mean, that’s a huge accomplishment.”

JERRY SCHECTER

Jerry Schecter has been a substitute teacher at Stuyvesant since 2001, and his 20th anniversary of working at Stuyvesant is rapidly approaching. However, his relationship with the school started much earlier, for he once attended Stuyvesant as a student. Since then, the school has changed drastically, especially in terms of the technology. “In class, there were no labs, and in order to have the few times when the students could handle equipment, the entire [class] had to line up one at a time, come down the stairs of the recitation hall, and line up and go to the microscope,” he recounted. “That’s how we learned how to use a microscope. That’s also how we learned how to dye and prepare a slide with onion skins.”

Rather ironically, there were no substitute teachers at Stuyvesant when Schecter was a student. He reminisced, “I think there was a different attitude, and it was not necessarily a healthy one. Teachers came in when they were very sick and the only times they stayed [home] were if there were a death in the family.” There was one instance where his French teacher, Dr. Moore, had to take a leave because of a heart attack. “Other French teachers gave up their lunch and their free periods to teach his class. He came back after the first term but he became very ill during my upper junior year, and he died. Another teacher took over his class permanently,” he said.

Like Vasquez, Schecter enjoys reading, so he went to college and earned a degree in language and literature. He also likes biology and chemistry, though he could not go into a scientific field because of his “limitations in math,” he said.

Schecter decided to become a teacher while in graduate school, though it was not something he initially planned to pursue. “While I was in graduate school, I started to take teaching courses because the cost of going to graduate school for a Ph.D and meet[ing] my financial obligations to other people—my family—was impossible, so I decided on a teaching career, and I haven’t regretted it,” he explained.

To control a class, Schecter likes to joke around. “Excuse me, class, who has the chloroform?” he joked. He believes charm to be especially important with appealing to a class, though it does not work universally.

He is not shy with making jokes about his age either. When asked about his hobbies, he laughed and replied, “Hobbies? I’m at an advanced age. Breathing is very nice. Breathing is terrific.”

Retirement does not seem to be coming soon for Schecter, however. “I come in because I really enjoy being around here. I enjoy these kids and they know that. I enjoy the classes. I also enjoy the faculty. And I like being around them,” Schecter said. “I really should be thinking about retiring but I find [substituting] too much fun.”