It’s no secret that we’re having a teacher shortage right now. They’ve been an undervalued and unappreciated profession for years, and with great teachers leaving the profession at a startling rate, some schools are getting desperate to fill teaching positions. 

This summer, a mom got an unexpected job offer from her children’s school. She applied to be a substitute teacher but ended up getting an offer to be a full-time 5th-grade teacher. This woman does not have a teaching degree, nor is she licensed to teach in the state of Virginia. She has a bachelor’s degree, and she previously worked as a substitute teacher and assisted in a kindergarten, but she has never had a classroom of her own. She was befuddled by the offer and shared her experiences with the educators of r/Teachers. The teachers in her area and around the world informed her this wasn’t as unusual as she thought.