A Teacher Makes Our Case!
You will recall all the tales of woe that come spewing forth
whenever someone points out that teachers are not underpaid when their months of summer vacation are factored in. You know
the predictable babble: "we never stop working, preparing next year's class plan, taking improvement courses,
overworked, underpaid, always being bashed, blah,
blah, blah."
Well, we've finally found a teacher who has told it like it
is ... as it really is.
Once you get beyond his sarcasm and vitriol, Brian O'Neill,
in his letter to the editor (below), documented what idyllic extended vacations only teachers and legislators uniquely enjoy
at taxpayers' expense, how they really spend those paid months
off.
He also demonstrated the contempt in which too many of them
smugly hold their employers, we taxpayers, thumbing his nose at those of us in the real world.
We thank Brian for this great service he has provided, one
money can't buy. He can depend on us to immortalize his words in the days and months ahead.
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|
Chip Ford |
The Salem Evening News
Wednesday, July 12, 2000
Letters to the Editor
Sick of Anderson's anti-teacher diatribes
To the Editor:
I called today to cancel my subscription to your newspaper.
I cannot abide seeing one more inane column by Barbara Anderson.
The poor woman must have had some terrible experiences in
grade school to show such rancor and contempt for public schools and teachers in her writings. That's a shame, but why
do we readers have to constantly be confronted by her often ignorant and illogical rhetoric
that only serves to insult and to display her vitriolic biases?
Her latest tirade ("Nothing like a Bay State summer -
especially if you're a teacher or legislator," June 27) whining about teachers and others having the summer "off," is typical
of her radio talk show blather, masquerading as political commentary fit to be printed.
Aside from the two to three weeks I'll spend going into my
Marblehead classroom to clean and organize for next year, mostly on rainy days, and the week-long, curriculum-related
course I'm taking, the summer is all mine! I intend to sleep late when I want, eat slow
breakfasts on the deck with the dogs, read a pile of books awaiting my attention, take my old
MG to Cranes Beach then take a walk and a swim, putter in the garden, maybe have a gin
and tonic in the early afternoon with other teacher or retiree friends. And you know what
Barbara? I'm going to enjoy it all the more just knowing how much it galls you!
Have a great summer! Hope it doesn't rain every weekend, or
during your short week's vacation in August. What a shame!
Brian F. O'Neill
Ipswich
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