Foothill Officials Didn’t Get Message of Student Sit-In

It was with great sadness that I read of the teachers’ boycott of the annual open house at Foothill High School in Tustin (April 27)--another myth totally put to rest.

The myth: Most teachers have an inborn “calling” and sense of obligation to their profession and to their students.

The hope: That teachers are somehow more than just human, that ranks them right up there with other “care-givers” like doctors, nurses and ministers. As an adult, it is necessary to let go of some of the hopes and dreams of childhood. Facing reality is important, but some hopes and dreams are harder to let go of than others, and this one (that of the superhumans who become teachers) has been a particularly difficult one for me. And it has been slowly but surely eroded by the constant emphasis on salary and other contractual issues, the strikes, walkouts and boycotts that dramatically and tragically affect the nation’s children. I guess one could argue that the students are experiencing bargaining as it is needed. I, on the other hand, wonder what the students must think of their importance to our nation when they are often considered at the bottom of the list of concerns by the teachers’ negotiating groups.

I agree that teachers should be paid salaries and granted a status far above what some currently enjoy. I also believe, however, that teachers themselves have eroded their place of honor--and the people of my generation (parents of school-age children) feel a greater loss than many of the teachers at the attitude that they themselves have created.

CAROL KIESSIG

Dana Point