The Teacher in Salinas

Thank you for the article regarding George Shirley. I heard the story a few weeks ago from a friend who teaches in Salinas. She had told me only what remarkable work he had done when I asked, “Have they fired him yet?” It was the obvious question.

Your article implies that this is an isolated horror story. It is not. Good teachers without tenure are fired. For example, a math teacher whose students improved their test scores by an average of two years in six months was promptly fired.

The education “reform” movement, at least in California, has vested enormous power in the hands of administrators with virtually no checks on that power. Bright, creative teachers, always in short supply, are becoming extinct. The trade-off of slightly improved salaries for sharply truncated rights has been disastrous.

I know of no teachers who are willing to encourage young people to go into teaching. California wants its teachers to be gray people who do as they’re told. It wants its children to follow their example.

After 30 years in the classroom, I retired just in time.

PATRICIA MARTIN

Paso Robles