A few years ago, I had to be out of town, so following the usual routine, I requested a substitute ahead of time. Because she had a prior commitment, another substitute was assigned to my class. She happened to be a very sweet lady, matronly in appearance, and also the great-aunt of one of my students.

Unfortunately, the day I was away, the school was forced to go on lock down because of a suspicious event near campus. When the announcement for the lock down came over the intercom, the substitute must have gotten a little frightened, and she calmly told the class, “ I guess I’ll just get my pocketbook and head on back to the house.” As she began walking to the door, one of the students told her, “You can’t leave. You have to stay and protect us!”

I understand why she wanted to leave. I’ve wanted to do the same thing many times myself. But the very fact of a lockdown made the situation a little more precarious than just that common feeling all teachers have, at times, of wanting to go home in the middle of a day or a class.

To her credit, the substitute remained with the class until the end of the lockdown, and the end of the day, but my students had gained an unexpected, new appreciation for all their teachers. They suddenly realized that their teachers are committed to them, and we aren’t going anywhere if and when they truly need us.

Ask any teacher you know about how hard taking a day off is when they have to leave detailed lesson plans behind for someone else, and you’ll probably get pretty much the same story. Most teachers will tell you that going to work (even when they’re sick) is far easier than taking a day off because of all the planning that has to be done.

I’ve often compared it to how parents of young children feel when they are going away for the weekend and they have to leave a compendium of their daily routine for the babysitter. Substitutes are more than babysitters, of course, but teachers think of their students as their own children after spending so much time with them. We’re also afraid they might act up, and we don’t want them to give the substitute any trouble because it reflects poorly on us as their regular teacher.

Teachers don’t usually think about all the ins and outs of their days until they have to put them all into one written document. If we aren’t stressed enough before we think about all we actually do in a single day, we can easily become more stressed when we focus on an entire day of teaching duties all at once.

There’s also the issue of whom to request as a sub when we’re gone. For those of us who have worked any length of time, we usually know that talented individual whom we trust the most. Perhaps he or she is the one who always pinch hits for us, and upon our return, we invariably find everything in order.

The truth is, we don’t think anyone else can do as good a job as we do, because these are “our kids,” and we know inherently how to best serve them each day. But sometimes, due to circumstances, we simply can’t be at work, no matter how hard we try to stay.

Most of the time, I’ve found my kids are glad to have me back after I’ve been gone for a day or two, but there have been times my students were glad to have had a “vacation from their real teacher.” They’re only human, of course.

When I do re-enter the teenage world, and I hear someone say, “Where were you yesterday? We missed you,” I can settle back into my routine with a renewed perspective and a shot of adrenalin. It also makes me realize that they need a dependable caregiver, not just during a lock down, but throughout most days of the school year. Whenever I feel like “going on back to the house,” I remember I have another family at school who needs me to stay — that is, unless I need “a sudden vacation” from them.

Larry Efird teaches at A.L. Brown High School.