Teachers should also be paid for struggling kids
In response to several recent articles about merit pay for teachers, as an educator with 25 years of experience, I felt I must weigh in. Instead of additional pay for teachers who work with the kids who are clicking along at an acceptable pace, I propose that the teachers who earn it are the ones who work with children who are struggling in the regular classroom. These are the teachers who work tirelessly to determine why Johnny can’t read, trying cutting-edge strategies, tutoring before or after school, making referrals for further testing, staying abreast of the latest research, and meeting with administrators and parents.
Some of the many issues working against the teacher and student include the natural intellect of the child, the unwillingness of the student to apply himself, language barriers, poor nutrition, medical issues, inadequate sleep, domestic abuse, homelessness, lack of support or supplies from parents.
These are the kinds of challenges that can burn out teachers and cause them to look elsewhere for employment. Money cannot buy the dedication of these teachers, but it can help them feel like their efforts are appreciated. Let’s rethink how we reward those who are helping to shape the next generation.
MARGARET BEVILLE, BRASELTON
Bravo to great teachers who go unnoticed
This week, Ambassador Swanee Hunt gathered over 40 women at the Harvard Kennedy School as part of her course, “Inclusive Security,” to discuss the transition from war to peace. As a Roswell resident, I opened AJC online on Jan. 7 and read the headline “Georgia’s teachers could see their biggest raise in years.” Fulfilled by Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal, that joy quickly dwindled. My mind fleetingly shifted to my cohort stories about current-day Ukraine, where teachers and students are internally displaced. In Liberia, orphaned Ebola students are exiled and some teachers have embraced foster parenting responsibilities.
For these teachers, there will be no pay raises this year. Worse, the students have no or insufficient classrooms. In a year of U.S. elections, the AJC holds a responsibility to inform us on global undertakings that impacts us. Students in Liberia lost their parents to Ebola, and Emory Hospital and the CDC both played significant roles in combating Ebola.
Americans, especially Georgians, should take a moment to reflect on what an incremental 4 percent pay raise means for teachers in countries where exclusive security still exists. Bravo to the well-deserving teachers in Georgia and, also, to all teachers unnoticed, for a pay raise.
ELLEN KWAME CORKRUM, ROSWELL
Executive order on guns just a smokescreen
President Obama calls for more restrictions on gun ownership and uses the same convoluted logic that liberals fall back on when they don’t want to apply tough solutions to gun violence. Black-on-black crime and illegal immigrant crime in mostly liberal-run sanctuary cities is at epidemic levels, a problem that could be solved if Obama would abandon his destructive radical ideology.
Obama’s push to add more gun controls is a smokescreen to hide his ultimate goal of total gun confiscation, which would essentially do away with the Second Amendment of our Constitution. Judging by Obama’s repeated statement that he wants “to fundamentally change America,” the Second Amendment is not the only one he’d like to eliminate.
TOM GAMBESKI, JASPER
How does order affect law-abiding gun owners?
Many Georgians claim that the president’s action to require background checks for a gun purchase affects them as law-abiding citizens. I would suspect, however, that someone who might not pass a background check opts for purchasing a gun at a gun show, online or from the tailgate of a pickup. So if someone is law-abiding, how do the new rules make a significant difference in their life? Could all the rhetoric be just another way to fund-raise and keep gun sales soaring while homicides and suicides continue to kill our citizens? Probably so.
MICHAEL BUCHANAN, ALPHARETTA
