School Finance 101 slanted, illogical
I read the series, School Finances 101, in the Daily Herald and have been fascinated with the slanted perspective as opposed to fully documented and researched facts about the status of education in Illinois.
So many statements are simply misguided ones, a result of illogical thinking, or loaded with inflammatory language.
Too often in your articles, teachers are to blame for the state of educational fiscal irresponsibility because of their apparent greediness, wanting more and more money for working less and less.
As a retired educator of 32 years, I remember when I had to borrow money for a college course tuition at the age of forty. Yes, I was still attending college at that age and older.
Most people believe education for their children is one of the single most important factors in their children's rearing, yet a prejudice of paying for that good education becomes a target for a newspaper's readership in providing for them "ammunition and information to help shape the debate over school finance in Illinois." (Daily Herald, "Bottom line on schools.")
I am proud to stand with a fellow teacher who falls asleep late at night grading papers at the kitchen table; I am proud to stand with a fellow teacher who arrives early, stays late, gives up weekends and week nights to work with young people while sometimes sacrificing his own personal life in so doing; I am proud to stand with a fellow teacher who comes home after teaching all day, grading papers, tutoring students, instilling passion for life and learning all day, and then decides to create yet another worksheet to help students understand better.
Yet, the Daily Herald says it's "Time to demand better results." (Nov. 25) From whom? Teachers? Administrators? Parents? Students?
So, what is wrong? Teachers are scapegoats for the social ills of daily lives when students don't perform to someone's standards. Who is to blame? Students? Parents? Administrators? Teachers?
How utterly absurd to equate a live, human being, a student, a young child with an eagerness to learn, a young child with all of his senses absorbing life around him, being stimulated with knowledge so vast, dreaming of what he is to become to "the product -- our students as they leave the factory." (Daily Herald, Nov. 25.)
A "product" of a factory, of manufacturing isn't alive, isn't acting and reacting; it does nothing. If the "product" of a factory fails, we throw it away. Teachers do not throw away students -- nor do parents who entrust children to teachers daily.
The Daily Herald in School Finances 101 has implied that teachers do not deserve their salaries, has created false analogies and has abused its public trust with less than accurate and "total" picture reporting.
The Daily Herald simply has singled out and fueled an unjust prejudice toward teachers.
Unlike in the United States of America, the teaching profession is highly respected around the world. Other societies value educators and education, not even thinking of devaluing either's worth with the bottom line, money.
If America truly wishes to soar, all members of its society -- parents, teachers, children, legislators, newspaper writers, etc. -- must work together and to value the benefits of life that education gives to them despite the cost.
Mariann Guyon Olivier
Mount Prospect