[voiceover] Maybe teachers have a hidden life. Where they're actually... like, human. Where they have, I don't know... dignity. Or maybe not.
“The Substitute” · Season 1, Episode 6
In this episode: Mr. Racine (4), Angela Chase (3), Rayanne Graff (1), Patty Chase (1), Jordan Catalano (1), Sharon Cherski (1)
SStudent
So why are you here? You the new substitute?
Why am I here? Yeah, good question. I'm the new substitute, yes. I'm here quite simply to get paid. Assuming all of you can read and write, I don't perceive any emergency situation. That's all. Continue wasting your lives. [he pulls a folded newspaper out of his knapsack]
So, um...are we like, dismissed?
Do you want to be dismissed?
No, you just said that...you just said that was all you had to say, so...
I will be here for the next forty-seven minutes. Whether you will also be here for that time is, to be candid, your decision.
What's the catch?
No catch. If you don't want to be here, go. I'm not gonna stop you. [Jordan immediately climbs out of his desk and heads for the door] Well, you know, there is just, you know, one catch. We will be discussing you in your absence, but you know, if you don't mind that...
Yeah, right.
Oh, it's no joke. I have no lesson planned. Trashing you in your absence will help, uh, pass the time. Right? It could, uh, possibly be educational as well.
So what are we supposed to do?
[Jordan returns to his seat]
Ah, I've known you all of five minutes and you want me to tell you what you're supposed to do? Fine. Follow your hearts and veer away from heroin.
[laughs] No, I meant in the next forty-seven minutes.
I know what you meant, that was sarcasm.
Write it down. Whatever you feel like saying write it down instead. What you never told anyone. What you never even told yourself. And don't fear exposure. No one is to put his or her name down. This will be completely anonymous.
[whispering to Angela] Just how I like sex.
My husband and I read the stuff that the kids wrote --
Hope it didn't give him a heart attack. He seemed a bit fragile.
Actually, it isn't my husband who had the problem.
[Mr. Racine smiles]
I just think...there's this one piece in particular that I just don't feel comfortable printing.
Oh! You're afraid that Angela wrote it.
This has nothing to do with whether Angela wrote it.
So, this is just censorship for censorship's sake?
What?
Hand them over. I'll type them myself, and I'll have them Xeroxed.
These are children! We are adults! This is not censorship! This is guiding adolescents who need...guidance!
That is a very reasonable opinion, and very clearly stated. Unfortunately, it's total manure.
Excuse me?
It's horse manure. I sense you're angry. Are you angry?
Yes!
Yes! I sensed that! [laughs]
Why is it manure?
Good question. It is manure because this journal should be about giving these students a voice, not about having their thoughts edited. If these kids aren't afraid to put their hearts on the page, why should we be afraid of them?
You should really teach full-time.
We have a difference of opinion. Fine. But do you think you should be in the position of deciding because you run a printing press and I don't?
Do you expect me to answer that question?
Yes.
[pause] No, I don't.
[He hands the papers back to her and starts to leave]
So. Did Angela write it?
[He smirks and walks out]
I heard you left your family -- abandoned them.
I see.
So are you saying you didn't? I mean, what's the truth?
Well, there are a couple of truths. One truth is I left my family. The other truth is my wife is far better off without me. Yes. I got out. I escaped. I broke out of a prison of my own making, and many, many people want to punish me for that -- maybe even you.
I'm trying to --
'To' what? To understand? Look, my struggle for freedom is mine. Get your own. Get out before it's too late, Amanda.
'Get out'? Get out of what?
That mind-control factory -- that warehouse they store you in because they don't know what else to do with you.
You're telling me to drop out of high school?
Good question. Yes. Run for your life. Save your life. Let the walls of your gingerbread house come crashing down. Or not.
It's Angela. And I have to say I don't think leaving high school is the answer. I don't think leaving anything is. The thing is...is I kind of admired you.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's My So-Called Life pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.