Though I am not one of them, many believe that the policy of teachers unions is to put jobs, salaries and seniority ahead of educational quality, the remains of which is incompetent teachers and the chief reasons children are so poorly educated in public schools.

This, of course, is sheer nonsense: some more powerful locals through out the nation have managed to negotiate better education at the table with their respective school boards. Only recently the teachers union in New York after years of lobbying in Albany finally was instrumental in obtaining an $82 million grant for the state’s teachers professional development of a core curriculum for pre K-3 reading. 

Because of the traditional structure of primary school in which pupils have one teacher most of the day, in-service courses were designed as far back as 1916 by AFT’s inception to assist teachers in disciplines beyond their major. The reason the elementary level is not set up by subject area is that at this early stage it is imperative that there be a sense of comfort and security for the “whole child” by identification in a closely knit ambience.

Frankly, I have always believed that experts in the sundry areas be in transit — but not without themselves having training in the sensitivity of the whole child — to conduct some class instruction or assist the classroom teacher in areas of weakness. Of course, owing to the Scrooge mentality in education this is ruled out. Without strong teacher unions to hold local boards and state legislators accountable for shortchanging serious education, there would little inroads into improving the skills of teachers and students.

Notwithstanding that the vast majority of parents and students respect teachers, anti-unionism persists as a subterfuge for eliminating public education altogether. Why would anyone want to do that? This nation, regardless of its imperfections, is grounded in the pride of education for every child. The prevailing negativism concerning public education certainly doesn’t help efforts in its improvement, which, granted, is particularly in need today because of accelerated changes in society’s makeup, especially the two-income family wherein children are pretty much left to themselves to cope with the challenge of learning, resulting in even greater reliance on the teacher.