PUBLIC MIND: NEA IS A TRADE UNION WITH A REAL PURPOSE

To the editor:

I read with some alarm the Aug. 2 editorial in the Southeast MIssourian regarding Superintendent Neyland Clark and the NEA. While I quite agree that Mr. Clark is not the object of the NEA-sponsored witch hunt, some of the unspoken assumptions regarding the NEA and education voiced in the editorial cannot go unchallenged.

The NEA is typified as a dangerous trade union, the largest in the United States. Why should teachers not belong to an organized group dedicated to furthering their professional interests? Does no one remember why and for what purpose trade unions were originally conceived -- to empower and give voice to those being abused in the workplace? Given the history of the teaching profession and the continuing lack of acknowledgement and respect for the vital function teachers play in society, teachers should have the same rights to band together in their own interests that professionals in any other occupation have.

Just a hundred years ago, society's prevailing attitude regarding teachers, especially women, was one of profound disregard and disrespect. They were necessary, but somehow suspect. Only those who were inadequate or lacking in other resources went into teaching, or so most believed then. (How else did that tried old saw, "Those who can, do. Those who can't teach" originate?) Only through dedicated effort did teaching become the highly skilled and demanding profession it should be recognized as today -- yet isn't. Teachers still suffer the disrespect and suspicion of those they struggle to prepare for the future.

To fault a professional organization such as the NEA for the decline in the quality of U.S. education is preposterous. Why can't we face the fact that this decline is simply the outgrowth of the overall decline in the social fabric of our nation, based in the growth of poverty our government seems unwilling or unable to stop. Until each American is safe from the ravages of hunger, disease, violence, drug abuse and homelessness, the results will be evident in not only the decline in our education system, but in a concommitmant decline in every facet of our society. We shouldn't blame teachers for their inability to cure the social ills that result in so much blight. To do so is much like blaming the police for the upsurge in violence we see all around us, or blaming doctors and nurses for the diseases they treat. Until we see the causes for what they really are, and stop using scapegoats (such as trade unions and the NEA) for fast and easy (albeit temporary) public satisfaction, our problems are just going to get worse.

Denise Jackson

Cape Girardeau