NO NOTICES OF NON-DELIVERY YESTERDAY. TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

10 February—This email came in Tuesday evening from El Liberalissimo, reacting to my “Paying through the nose” disquisition: “I’ll begin paying attention to your tax worries when CT begins paying teachers what they deserve and sets reasonable limits on academic class sizes. Everything begins with education.”

When I got back from vespers, I replied, “They’re not worries. They’re pointed observations. And just what do you think teachers deserve? I hate to bring up my past, but I got a fantastic education in NYC public school classes usually with 35–never under 30—pupils (including in severely overcrowded Forest Hills High School with triple session and underpaid but dedicated teachers). The currently fashionable mini-classes, not to mention teacher aides, are absolutely ridiculous in all respects. And an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. There’s education and there’s excess.”

That elicited this impassioned retort from El: “Back in our day a wrench was a good tool to fix my car. Today it takes a computer. I had hopes you believed education was the key to success. There are all kinds of stresses hitting kids and education right now. If ever there was a time when our kids needed adults in the schools it is now following covid interruptions. In truth, we have weathered multiple recent traumas. I’m surprised one who values education as you do spends so much effort trying to undermine local schools rather than giving some credit to those on the front lines. I believe you don’t realize how much damage you do.

“Just out of curiosity, in terms of appropriate pay for the job, what do you think an appropriate pay should be for a teacher [who] after five years of teaching has proven his/her worth to the school district?

“And if that same teacher were reaching the end of a long, successful [career], a master teacher ready to retire in another year???”

El Liberalissimo is, of course, a master teacher who retired after a long, successful career. A master of maieutics, he answers my question with a question. Tune in tomorrow for my riposte. In the meantime, please join the debate. Let me and other Monitor readers hear from you. I’ll respect your anonymity, if you wish.

Email your comments to Editor@LitchfieldMonitor.com or PMRosenberg@Optonline.net. Or both . . .