punk, zines - book - 2005 - On Subbing: The First Four Years

On Subbing: The First Four Years
Dave Roche
Microcosm Publishing
2005
128 pages

    Dave Roche is a zinester who writes in a very plain, straightforward style, about his personal experiences.  Recently he has released a zine titled About My Disappearance, that describes his experience of developing Crohn’s disease and coming to terms with it.  On Subbing: The First Four Years, is a compilation of Roche’s On Subbing zine which describe the day-to-day experiences of his work as a substitute Education Assistant.  

    An Education Assistant helps teachers manage students who have special needs.  As a substitute EA, Roche works temporarily at schools all over his area, helping students with various disabilities and challenges.  Such challenges can range from issues with aggression, to severe autism. Roche appears to enjoy the work and he often notes how the students respond favorably to him.  The teachers seem to give Dave more trouble than his students do, and at one point Roche says something to the effect that it was the other adults who were the real problem in his profession.  Roche's book is primarily about work, about existing on the edge of a career and an institution, but also about finding rewards in the work being done on that edge. 

    One interesting subtext to On Subbing is Dave Roche’s punk lifestyle.  He is vegan, straight-edge, plays in a band, shoplifts (in a couple of scenes), and at least once in the book he hitchhikes between cities.  Often Dave recalls when students make fun of his nerdy appearance, however he also is lucky enough to occasionally bond with some of the kids over his punk interests.  He is not pushy about his veganism and sometimes his students show an interest in his diet and lifestyle without his prodding.  Sometimes his students are impressed in the fact that he knows about music and mentions that his band has a show.  At the end of the book, in the afterword, Dave describes himself as an alternative/anarchist teacher and it appears from his text that he has had a lot of success in working with students through his 'alternative' methods.

    On Subbing is formatted as a diary, with text recalling his experiences divided into discreet entries appearing under headings that include dates and the name of the school he was working at.  Roche has a very ‘matter-of-fact’ style of writing, and he describes the things he experiences and sometimes his emotional responses to those things in very plain language.  This is not to say that his writing is not good, and I for one very much appreciate the tone he sets through his unadorned language.  Enough zine-writing out there is already condescendingly self-righteous or self-indulgently whiny.  In very simple terms Roche conveys the human experience of working with children who are on the margins of the education system, and in doing so, also outlines the details of a profession that is on those same margins.

Also, On Subbing includes a number of funny black and white illustrations, depicting particularly funny EA situations, by a selection of underground cartoonists.