Phil Lanoue, the superintendent of schools in Athens, Georgia, offered his teachers a reward: those with perfect attendance would get a day off. Some teachers resisted the offer because they didn’t want to miss their classes.

He and other administrators became substitute teachers for those who accepted the day off. He taught a class in life science.

He wrote:

While the original idea was to reward teachers, I know it ended up making far more of an impact on those of us who walked in their shoes for a day.

At the end of the day, he had new respect for his teachers:

I made it through the day, exhausted, and having developed an even deeper understanding and appreciation for our teachers. I tried to make my teaching interesting, interactive and relevant, but I could see that there was something that only the regular classroom teacher could offer: the foundation…