May 12, 2003
Towards a 'Re: Education' Program
Under normal circumstances, I don't point to any of our newspapers' letters to the editor pages, but this letter in today's Oregonian is too good to pass up:
Send legislators to school
I have a proposal: Create "Take a Legislator to School Day." It would work like this:
Legislators would be assigned to schools within their districts, selected by school principals. They would appear at school at the same time as their assigned teachers. In many cases, this is far earlier than the payday hours indicate.
The teachers would have prepared tasks for their "aides." They could range from working with kindergartners in learning to form letters to working with reading groups and working one-on-one with students in math.
The "aides" would participate in any duties the teachers had, be it playground, lunch room or bus. They would stay after school until the teachers had completed their work, regardless of how late that was.
I am sure that after one very full day of dealing with the problems each teacher in our state faces day after day, the whole discussion of school financing would be considered far differently.
I am a retired teacher (30 years in Oregon public schools) and have volunteered in Beaverton schools for eight years. I see what goes on and am daily in awe of these professionals.
SALLY LARSEN
Beaverton
Frankly, why not go further? Urge (or stop just short of compelling) everyone to spend one day a year as a teacher's aide in the public school system. Require employers to allow their employees to do this once every year.
It's not enough, unfortunately, to make legislators do it. Large portions of society at large seem to not quite comprehend what it means to be a teacher in the public school system. So let's push for everyone to take their turn. As per the headline above, we can cleverly name it a "Re: Education" program.