I also look forward to reading about the challenges they face.

John Gromada

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
best,
AmyV

“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and ASSIMILATES himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Bernard Schneider

I’m sure you are a good person and mean well, but its time you became a real reporter.

Imagine that you are writing a story about the state of marriage in this country, based ONLY with interviews with brides and grooms on their Wedding Day. Hope springs eternal (not a bad thing in and of itself), but the cold hard statistics is that 50% of all marriages end in divorces.

Same as to teachers. Fully 50% of all starting teachers will leave the profession within 5 years. Being in a classroom with students is a sobering experience; and essentially you don’t have a clue—and how could you?

Next year, instead of doing another story about starting teachers, see how many of your four teachers are still teaching.

Feel-good stories only make people feel good, while they throw up their hands in exasperation as to why the educational system around them is crumbling.

Here is my suggestion to you. Find yourself a school district—pretty much any school district, and apply to be a substitute teacher. All you need is a BA, and perhaps an interview. Spend time in a school and absorb what is really going on—what discipline is actually like, what teachers say to each other during the day, whether students even come to school ready to learn. The reality is that there is a truth out there that nobody—teachers, parents, administrators, professors, politicians—wants to talk about and face up to frankly and honestly.

Yours truly,

Bernatrd Schneider