WHY TEACH?

Why teach was exactly the question I had to ask myself after 32 years of doing the most important work I have ever done in my life. Why teach when my principal preferred to take a student out of my class at the parent’s request without even conferring with me on the charges the parent was accusing me of? Why teach when our schools’ absence rate rose from an average 10% to more than 35% regularly? Why teach when my wife was receiving an annual salary equivalent to mine after only her fourth year as an accounts receivable collector? I could go on at even greater length but I’ll stop--and that’s exactly what I decided to do with my teaching career.

JOSEPH N. FEINSTEIN

Sherman Oaks