BE OUR GUEST

Pat Heckert lives in Cape Girardeau and teaches here.

An open letter to Nancy Baker:

I read your "Be Our Guest" article~~ earlier this month, and like Steven Mosley of Sikeston, I too feel I must respond.

First, I will begin by saying that I have known and worked with a number of the outstanding educators who staff the fine parochial schools in our area. I have much respect for them. They are doing an excellent job. I have enjoyed viewing their school play productions, watching their spelling bee contestants, reading their school newspapers, seeing their basketball games, and attending their chili suppers. I pass some of their school playgrounds almost daily and see the happy, active young students in their charge.

For whatever reason, however, fate has taken my career in education on a different path. For the past 20 years now, it has been my privilege to work as a teacher in public schools in Southeast Missouri.

So it is, Nancy, that your article implying that my colleagues in the public schools are less dedicated or effective somehow t~han~ educators in private schools or that our students are not accomplishing the level of excellence which otherwise they might, your article becomes very troubling to me.

I know your follow-up letter to the editor on Feb. 25 suggested we send our anecdotal evidence to Dr. John Chubb, but he is far away; so I hope you will allow me to share my thoughts with you.

The day begins very early at Schultz Middle School, where I teach. Most of my colleagues there arrive around 7 or shortly after. Pass by and you will see one of them at the door, greeting students and keeping an eye on the traffic. Others are monitoring in the library and hallways and cafeteria, writing the day's schedule on chalkboards, readying materials and supplies, awaiting the 7:45 bell for another busy day of school when they will teach approximately 150 or more students in the six classes which make up their daily schedules.

Every day is a busy one at Schultz, where our seventh graders study the basic curricular subjects, plus choose from many other offerings ~band, orchestra, choir, life skills, art, industrial technology, French, and Spanish.

Inside the classrooms, the Schultz teachers like so many in our Cape Public Schools and throughout Southeast Missouri bring years of professional experience and advanced degrees to their craft. But along with that, and more important to the issue here, they bring the highest level of care and dedication to their role of educating~ the young people who fill those classroom desks.

Long after the bell rings to end the day at Schultz, you will find the staff still on hand. In one room, a help session is under way; in another, Beta Club or oratorical practice or Yearbook Staff, Student Council, Safety Patrol, intramurals, team staffings, parent conferences, Math Counts practice, Science Fair preparation ...

These are the teachers who make sure there is money for all of our students to have school T-shirts, who figure B.U.G. (Bringing Up Grades) rolls, who make home calls and home visits, who write happy "Paw-Gram" notes, who make sure glasses are secured for a student who needs them, who see about clothing if there is a need or sometimes presents at Christmas, who make trips to Dairy Queen with students who might receive them rarely, the ones who notice when a student would benefit from an after-school visit to the mall and dinner out with a teacher-friend.

My colleagues at Schultz are special, yes like innumerable others out there in our profession.

And our students ... we have outstanding ones in the public schools of Cape Girardeau and neighboring communities, Nancy. I am ~~~lucky to work with them at an eager age, when~ they are full of enthusiasm and energy. Then, what joy it is to follow their accomplishments through junior high and high school, then see them walk across the platform at graduation to receive diplomas and head for futures which include the most prestigious colleges and universities as well as a wide range of work and career experiences.

Knowing these teachers and working with these young people, I had to write.

Times are not easy for educators right now. Yet, asked to work with less and do more, they continue to worry and care, to give and give.

My own son Justin has been the beneficiary~ of dedicated teacher after dedicated teacher so far in his K-7 years. My husband and I are very grateful. So should other families be, in Cape Girardeau and elsewhere, to know that there is much excellence to be found in all of our schools and that exemplary educations are available in our communities to all who truly seek them.