What Does It Take to Get a Teaching Job?

I was relieved to read “State Teacher Shortage” (letter, Aug. 14). Like Judith Backover, I was looking forward to teaching as a second career. After a long and varied career, I thought I had a lot to offer young people. I have been a teacher and an actor, have served in Vietnam, have worked as an instructional designer and trainer all over the world and am a published writer. I have a master’s degree and a current teaching credential.

I answered many ads, posted my resume, wrote many letters, filled out many applications. I went to many teacher fairs. I was granted very few interviews and was never offered a contract. I guessed the reason no school system was interested in me was age and a lack of classroom experience. I have finally given up. It is somewhat gratifying to read Backover’s comments and to learn that I am not alone in this frustration. But this doesn’t help the school situation. And this doesn’t help students in public schools who are being shortchanged by those “unqualified, sometimes foreign, emergency-waiver recruits.”

Don L. Freeman

Huntington Beach