Letters

Her Turn
Imagine my dismay after reading the March My Turn article written by one of my peers.

I was astonished to read the negative comments about teachers in our district, particularly those in our middle school. I read the article again, hoping to find something positive. I find it disturbing that the focus of the author’s comments was not our students’ many accomplishments, nor was it the dedication the teachers in Roselle Park have always shown, but rather that our teachers feel “despair” and “contempt” for their chosen profession and are nothing but “complainers” and “gossips.”

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. After interacting positively with so many of them in my 20 plus years in the district, I have found our teachers to be nothing but professional. We care deeply about our students, and I resent the implications that were made. I am appalled that both Mr. Verducci and the editors of NEA Today have chosen to malign the fine teachers in Roselle Park rather than to applaud them.

Kathleen Peterson
Roselle Park, New Jersey

Very Debatable
I read with interest your March debate column, "Should new teachers get the toughest assignments?” It brought back vivid memories of my first-year experience, 50 years ago in Yakima, Washington.

I was given a combination fifth and sixth grade class of 34 students.

The school auditorium was my classroom, and whenever another teacher wanted to use it for a program, we were moved out to another room. Because my students were neighbors, they knew each other well and also knew all the tricks to make a new teacher’s life interesting.

Fortunately, I had a principal who assumed, rightly, that I knew almost nothing about teaching and acted accordingly. I also had the benefit of a veteran teacher who tactfully guided me in the right direction. Otherwise, I believe I would have looked for another career.

I taught for 37 years in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and California, and found teaching to be a fulfilling and mostly enjoyable tenure. I wonder how many potentially fine teachers have been lost by this “throw them in the water and see who swims” approach.

Harold Morris
Menlo Park, California

At our middle school, new teachers get a mix of groups and not just the toughest.

At another secondary school in our district, the veteran teachers pick up the best courses—leaving the new teacher with the lowest groups, the toughest assignments.

The former situation is by far the fairest for all staff members.

Allen Goguen
Gardner, Massachusetts

Nobody in their right mind would knowingly and intentionally assign a new teacher the toughest assignments.

Unfortunately, this situation usually comes about because so many new teachers are hired after the beginning of the school year, leaving only the worst possible combinations available to them.

To suggest that teaching in the most difficult classes would allow new teachers to “toughen themselves” is ludicrous. This is one major reason why so many teachers leave the profession early on in their careers.

As a veteran teacher, I feel a responsibility to make the profession as easy as possible for new teachers. I have gone so far as to suggest to my carpool partner, a first-year teacher, that I would exchange assignments with her for next year if she wished to do so and the principal okays it.

New teachers need a stable environment that will allow them to get their feet wet.

Sports teams don’t usually throw rookie players onto the field in the most important games unless they have no other choice. Why should the teaching profession be any less mindful of its players than sports teams?

Randy Freeman
Tualatin, Oregon

Vouchers
In the March NEA Today, letter writer Caroline Zimmermann suggested that public school proponents look into why private schools are “succeeding.”

While I commend Zimmermann for attempting to embrace what works, I wholeheartedly disagree with her premise. We must not fall into the voucher trap.

After all, “success” is an easily manipulated concept, and the voucher movement is well schooled in the art of propaganda. But despite the arguments to the contrary, vouchers—as proposed—are wrong for two very important reasons.

First, there are the obvious church-state problems. It is estimated that 85 percent of all private schools are religious in nature. Therefore, 85 percent of all voucher money would be used to subsidize religious institutions.

Second, but certainly no less important, is the issue of democracy. Private schools, by their very nature, are undemocratic. They are unaccountable to the public and may discriminate as to who is admitted.

On the other hand, public schools, by way of state and federal regulations, are not only accountable to the public but are free and open to all comers.

Steve Hosch
Gilbert, Iowa

Unprepared New Hires
Union implies cooperation, partnership, and mutual respect, but the article entitled “Unprepared New Hires An Unacceptable Reality” (March) destroys such a façade. The author has stratified the NEA into credentialed and non-credentialed (sub-par) teachers.

I wonder how the other 30,000 individuals teaching with emergency permits in the state of California feel about the author’s overly simplistic, narrow-minded blurb on “unprepared teachers.”

What uncredentialed teachers offer to the school environment is something that most credentialed teachers do not have: experience in the real world.

Many of these nontraditional teachers are working in the urban districts where they attended school. Not only are they trying to give back to their own communities, they are also trying to give something to those students that they did not receive: guidance, counseling, an edge in the competitive college game. Many of these teachers represent ethnic minorities from throughout the diverse landscape that is California.

In closing the article, the author applauds a union-sponsored law, which requires districts to notify parents if their child is being taught by a non-certified teacher.

Is a piece of paper so important? Why would a school district hire non-certified teachers if they did not have other qualifications worthy of a teacher?

For those of us who work in the inner city, such a proposal creates an atmosphere of distrust in an already delicate parent-teacher relationship.

Joseph Mulligan
Los Angeles, California

Teaching Reading
I want to know how anyone who teaches is not a teacher of reading (Debate, February) Whether it’s math or fiction, economics or E-mail, everyone teaches reading by the very nature of teaching a subject.

The question is: How many need reading? My take is, many. Then the question becomes: What is more important than any subject taught? My take is, if a student doesn’t read, the rest is wasted motion.

Randall Youngren
Ellensburg, Washington

Margaret Patterson puts forth a cute argument, and I agree with her. She says teachers should not be required to be trained in the teaching of—tap dancing.

Reading, yes, but not dancing. Dr. Patterson of all people, a teacher of general music, should be aware of how poor reading skill affects the way students can or cannot read music and lyrics.

Poor readers are affected in every discipline, and the more teachers are available to help them, the better. Every teacher does not have to be a reading expert, but every teacher should have some training in teaching reading.

Ron Lepp
Pleasant Hill, Oregon

The parable offered by music teacher Margaret Patterson, to prove that not all teachers need to be able to teach reading, obviously was intended to be sarcastically witty. Unfortunately, her remarks fail on that account.

Every child needs to be prepped ahead of time, in order to comprehend material they are assigned to read. This is not a humorous or frivolous matter. To the contrary, the lack of such instruction has reached a crisis stage in many schools.

The latest national test scores indicate that inability of students to comprehend proficiently what they attempt to read remains at a perilously high level.

Effective teacher education in how to assist children to comprehend written text is not, as Patterson falsely claims, a “cult-like, one-size-fits-all’’ proposition.

Through this teacher education, teachers learn how to develop student understanding of unfamiliar vocabulary and syntactic structures in a given text, an author’s purpose, and how a text is organized—before students attempt to read it.

It is reasonable to expect that all teachers must be able to conduct these procedures.

Patrick Groff
Solon, Iowa

On the debate question—“Should all teachers be trained in the teaching of reading?”—I was disappointed to find that the majority of teachers voted no.

This is my first year of teaching, and I started the year with a fourth grade class, but was switched to a combo class in October. Having attended many reading conferences and now applying what I learned in my credential program as well, I see how I could have assessed and improved my students reading in my fourth grade class.

As educators, we have to understand that just because we teach students in the upper grades, that that doesn’t mean those students all read at an upper grade level.

Cecilia Dobson
Orange, California

See Editor’s column.

Paul Newman
I took special interest in the interview with Paul Newman in the February edition. I love Paul Newman as an actor. One of my favorite movies of all is Absence of Malice; it’s a classic.

But frankly, what does the guy know about military spending? Who is he to know how much is too much or too little for such a complex environment? Do we have any guarantees that hostile nations won’t point their weapons at us? Is he privy to satellite surveillance that the rest of us aren’t, that can guarantee a nuclear arsenal is not being produced and manned by our enemies? And while he’s at it, perhaps he also could shed light as to why many of our military personnel are on food stamps.

There is no better cause in the world than education. That’s why I became a teacher. And I would love to see more money invested in education, as long as it is spent wisely. It heartens me to see people such as Paul Newman get involved in a cause they believe in.

Singling out defense as the poster child for waste may play well for the media, but depicts only one side of the issue.

Janey McKillip
Belleville, Illinois

My Turn: Right Number
I believe that giving out your telephone number to students is a wonderful idea (My Turn, January). As a future educator, I believe that I should be on call. I believe that I should be there for my students. My job does not end at 2:55 p.m.

It’s not about the money or else I would have gone into another profession. Caring for your students doesn’t stop at the end of the day.

It should be understood that your teacher is a caring individual and not a money-hungry individual waiting to get paid.

Millie Brooks
Paterson, New Jersey

Keep It Coming
At 80, retired for many years, I still am glad to keep abreast of what is going on in the world of education. I really enjoy “In the Light Lane,” for it reminds me of my teaching career.

Articles about school technology fascinate me. A former student of mine, who uses computers in her classroom every day, has introduced me to the world of cyberspace! Now I can access information without stirring from my home.

My husband and I travel extensively in a motor home, but the laptop and printer go along! Please keep on inspiring those of us who have retired to keep up with what is happening today.

Jamie Wright
Linton, Indiana