LETTERS: DON'T DEGRADE TEACHERS WITH FREEZE

To the editor:

In view of the recent publicity as to our teachers' salaries, I feel I must come to their defense. In my opinion, if anything is done, let's start in the upper-level of administration. I mean, $90,000-plus a year. Really! Where are our priorities? Nobody blinked an eye at this, but heaven forbid our teachers get a pay raise.

Instead, they want to put a freeze on their salaries. How dare anyone think the administration office is worth more than a teacher? Have any of these people thanked any of the teachers who have gotten them thus far? If it weren't for teachers, our administration wouldn't hold the positions they have now.

The teachers we have today are teaching our children of the future. There is no price we can place on that. But economics being what they are, it seems we must. My vote would be to cut the upper-level administrators' salaries by half and give our teachers the raises they deserve. If a freeze is what is needed, then the freeze should be placed on the upper-level administrators' salaries.

How dare the people of this town degrade our teachers by moaning and groaning about having to take time off from work to meet with their child's teacher. I consider this to be a lack of parental involvement. These teachers are with our children five days a week, seven hours a day for nine months. So they get three months off. Don't you think they deserve that time to recompose themselves? After all, they put up with everything from the sweet kids who do nothing wrong to the smart-mouthed kids and from runny noses to head lice. They work in buildings that are cold in the winter and hot in the fall and late spring, not to mention crowded classrooms. They also attend seminars and upgrade their own education on their time in order to serve our children better and to maintain their teaching certificates.

What about our specialized teachers from special education to speech pathologists? These teachers have to stay current on any and all possible special needs any child could have in order to give them the education guaranteed to them in the Constitution, not to mention the federal and state laws governing special-needs classes.

Teaching is a rewarding profession, but obviously it has its share of drawbacks. It takes a special breed of people to become a teacher. Has anyone bothered to thank any or all teachers involved in their child's life? I can't think of a single parent who doesn't stress to their children how important a good educaiton is. Parents, I ask you who you think is going to give the children a good education if it's not a teacher?

I'm not a teacher, but I do have children enrolled at Clippard Elementary School. I respect the teaching profession, and I appreciate all the teachers have done for my children.

KATHY SHEPARD

Cape Girardeau