No {heart} for Message in Valentine Editorial

Re “The Anti{heart} Gets Our Vote,” editorial, Feb. 17: I confess, I am one of those teachers who tells students that if they choose to pass out valentines in my classroom they must bring one for each student. I further confess that if they want to pass out party invitations during class time they must invite each student. I probably should turn myself in! I was shocked to see an editorial on such a topic in light of all of the problems in education, even if it is meant to be a joke. I’ve been teaching 16 years and have never felt more discouraged about how my job is perceived. It’s bad enough that I am required to test 6-year-olds so often that at least one of them ends up in tears during each test.

Now you are giving me a hard time about caring about my students’ feelings? Has anyone asked teachers how they feel about having to use instructional time to pass out valentines?

Mary Groff

Carlsbad