Teacher Training and Salaries

* The Sept. 13 front-page headline reads, “Study Calls Poor Teacher Training a ‘National Shame.’ ” Where was the front-page headline earlier this year when Gov. Pete Wilson pushed a bill through the Legislature that severely reduced the requirements for being a public school teacher? No longer do teachers have to learn how to teach!

If we have a shortage of teachers, a better solution--far better for our students--would have been to pay teachers salaries that would attract an increased number of talented persons into careers in education. Today, we still pay teachers for “women’s work” even though educated women now have so many more (and better-paying) career opportunities.

Reducing the qualifications for teaching is the same kind of shortsighted policy as reducing the length of the school year and the number of minutes in the school day as occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. They both avoid levying the taxes needed to pay good educators for the work that really needs to be done in our classrooms.

DAVID E. ROSS

Oak Park

* Re the cartoon by J.D. Crowe, Drawingboard, Sept. 16:

The mean-spirited and negative depiction of teachers only further exacerbates the public impression that educators are a lackluster bunch of unqualified baby sitters. Virtually all teachers in California have a bachelor’s degree plus one year of graduate studies. Making the assumption that teachers are unqualified because they teach outside of their license major or minor is a mistake. The licensing process does not take into consideration teachers’ extraordinary talents, special interests or hobbies that give them specialized knowledge that they can impart to their students.

Educating our youth is not just a course of study but a process that demands input from teacher, parent and society. If you are a parent, senior or business person, perhaps you should get involved in the education process. You may not have a license to teach, but I’m sure you could make a great contribution based upon your practical experience, talents and education.

MIKE POLAND

Yucca Valley