Teachers go above and beyond
To the editor:
I was taught at a very young age to stand for not only what I believe strongly in, but also clear misconceptions in our community.
There is clarity in what the teachers in our Lakeville community are asking for, and that is a fair contract.
As a parent to a student at Maguire Middle School and JFK, I have tremendous admiration and respect for every educator and principal that has not only taught my children about academics, but shared a lot of their life with them.
Mrs. Krueger, who taught my son in fourth grade was an incredible leader and a very humble educator. Becky Bierman at Maguire and Dr. Alexander, have been more than accommodating as my son entered middle school.
As I read the online posts that are negative about teachers, I ask those people, when they stay late at their job as a professional, do they get paid? Well, they don’t. Most educators have a master’s degree or higher, and don’t receive reimbursement funds from the school district to attend graduate school.
I have been at JFK and Maguire at night and witnessed countless hours of teachers staying beyond the call of duty. Homework doesn’t check itself, it is done at night by educators. It makes me laugh when I see comments about how educators have the summer off? Do people really believe that?
Do they know how many educators teach summer school, coach, direct band or drama, and donate endless hours tutoring?
My son who is in seventh grade has a teacher who works two jobs to make ends meet.
I have seen educators who have bought mittens and hats for kids that don’t have any because they can’t afford it.
Teachers are asking for a fair contract, and they deserve it.
I hope that the Lakeville Area School Board can make the right decision.
I would like to thank all of the Lakeville teachers and coaches that go above and beyond for being humble in their words about what they perceive as right. I hope a precedent is set, and yes, they teach the future.
Ann Yule
Lakeville
Ann, my guess is your mention of negativity regarding opinions and/or comments my have been directed at me so I would simply like to ask you the same question I posed to Larry, the teacher who is making $50,000 per year. The question is how much does Larry, the teacher or your child’s teachers deserve to get. All I ever hear from school board officals, administrators, teacher unions and the like is we need to invest more. Well then how much more be specific how much should the teacher be paid?
I hope you realize that most private industry professionals don’t get paid for working beyond a 9 to 5 job they work until they complete his or her task at hand, which in some cases goes well beyond a 40 hour work week and includes nights and weekends. Also there was a time once that individuals never would have considered getting someone else to pay for advancing his or her education in order to increase their own individual potential worth to an employer.
Finally, those same private industry professionals don’t have something called tenure with lifetime guaranteed employment, wages and benefits.
My whole point to Larry, the teacher, was and is based upon the fact that in today’s reality in comparison to the private sector a $50,000 annual income for what amounts to a net of 8 months of employment and great benefits is not something to whine about and tell those who are strugglingon less income, with less or zero benfits to pay more in taxes.
In my opinion those that believe different don’t have a real grip on what is truly going on out in the private working world today.
Tom, clearly you and I disagree…but I will tell you first hand as a teacher I invite you to come and spend a day with me in our classroom. I invite you to cover the 40.00 that the parents don’t send for a classroom field trip. I also invite you to teach almost 45 kids at the high school level. I invite you to to spend 46 minutes with my students a day, and see if you get to know them. Have you bought a homeless kid a pair of gloves? Have you looked around to see if you could maybe have a friend put them up for a “night” I invite you to witness poverty, and have enough gratitude for your own self-worth to realize how Blessed I am…I invite you…well…I don’t invite you because you will never get it.
Ann, I do get it and appreciate what teachers do. You choose to spend your own money because some parents are irresponsible. I however don’t believe I nor you should pay for parents who choose to be irresponsible when it comes to taking care of their children. I would never expect my child’s teacher to pay for my child’s field trip or anything else. Thank you for making my point when you mention having enough gratitude that was exactly my point to Larry, the teacher who raised the money issue to begin with in his letter, which is appreciate the fact that earning $50,000 today with great benefits is pretty good in comparison to many private sector employees who are now struggling on far less income and little or zero benefits and to ask those people to pay more in taxes so that Larry can get increased wages and maintain receiving great benefits at very little cost just doesn’t seem real fair to me but then again it all depends on who is receiving the benefit and who is paying for the benefit, right?. My comments are meant to speak out for the non union, non government private sector employees who have had wages cut, benefits cut and yet are being asked by state and local governemnts to pony up more and more in the form of taxes. If you as a teacher feel you are entitled to higher pay and maintain great benefits at low cost even if it means taking more out of the pocket of your neighbor who is struggling with lower wages and lower benefits I guess as you pointed out we just have a different opinion on this matter.
Education is a good thing. If we didn’t have a system for honest transfer of important information, each generation of new humans would have to reinvent reading, writing, and arithmetic—not to mention the wheel. I’m all for education.
Teachers dedicated to truthful education are good, too. Without them, transfer of important information would be, at best, inconsistent. I appreciate dedicated teachers.
Freely given compassion is a good thing. It elevates and enriches the human experience. I’m all for acts of freely given compassion, small and large.
America’s public school system isn’t so good. Over twenty-five percent of students entering Minnesota’s public school system don’t graduate. Education in America is the most expensive in the world, yet our students rank seventeenth worldwide in knowledgeability. In other words, America has an educational system that’s broken.
Muddling together the distinct concepts of education, teaching as a profession, compassion and the public education system then acting as if they are somehow synonymous serves only to distract from the very real problem—a broken system. Important information isn’t being effectively transferred to upcoming generations. Sending poorly educated young American out into the world and expecting them to compete successfully is the opposite of compassionate.
It’s too bad that Ann in her letter gave the impression that her only stake in this matter was having a child in Lakeville ISD and appearing to be speaking in support of the teachers solely because of her child when in fact we now know Ann may also have a financial stake in this matter as well given the fact that you later have now come out and stated you are a teacher. Some might say that appears to be a conflict of interest and you may want to point that out in future letters when it involves the education system.