Tenure and merit go together

This is in response to the Pilot’s Jan. 8 story, “Teachers want to

terminate pay proposal,” in which Newport-Mesa teachers union

president Jim Rogers is quoted as saying: “Teachers are working with

as many as 35 kids in their classrooms, and each one is bringing into

the classroom a series of outside influences that educators have no

control over.”

My response: Outside influences are not new. For generations,

outside influences have penetrated the classroom. But a teacher’s job

is to teach, regardless of single-parent homes, tattoos, goofy dress

codes, unruly behavior, etc. Teachers are paid to perform, to

instruct, to stimulate the minds of their students.

Jim Rogers also said that the union’s “greatest concern is how

teachers would be able to coexist and share ideas in such a

competitive system.”

My response: Am I missing something here? Isn’t sharing ideas the

very basis of teaching? Because one teacher or administrator has the

ability or talent to derive more income than another should not

prevent them from sharing ideas.

Jim Rogers also said: “ ... teachers depend upon collegiality

among their peers, which is similar people working on standards

together. My personal feeling is there will be a lack of

collegiality, because money is a driving force for people. Teachers

won’t want to share their secrets of how they’re successful in a

certain area.”

My response: This is the first I have ever heard that money is the

driving force for the teaching profession.

If teachers do not want to share their successes, they’re in the

wrong profession. What’s to fear about sharing success?

Again, for generations, we have had a few bad apples that spoil

the barrel.

Tenure, without merit, fosters such conditions. Tenure, with

merit, should be the precept of the teaching profession.

TOMMY CROSSON

Newport Beach