To the editors:
We sincerely believe that a formal apology from your newspaper is due to our schools and community.
REBUTTAL TO THE ARTICLE: “THREE TEACHERS TALKING” PUBLISHED BY THE READER ON JANUARY 22, 1988
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Educational issues in this country, whether dealing with academic achievement, discipline, drugs, birth control, deviant behavior or gangs, warrant a serious approach which is sadly absent in this article. We feel this is a disservice to the community, and that it can lead to serious misunderstanding and prejudice regarding different socio-economic groups or cultures in our society.
In many of the remarks made by these teachers, we have detected a tendency to overreact to many of the problems they have been confronted with throughout their many years of teaching in this inner-city high school: gangs, drugs, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, low academic achievement, etc. Why did these “educators” have to wait more than ten years to voice their concerns over these issues? Why so many contradictory statements, feigned surprise and hypocritical indignation? Why have they pressed the panic button after so long? Teacher burnout? Why are they making such a big issue of problems that exist not only in many Chicago public schools, but throughout all the inner-city schools in the big cities of our nation?
There is also a clear dissatisfaction with the salaries they are being paid, the lack of concern of both parents and administrators, and the feeling that their concerns will never be taken seriously by the Chicago Public Schools or by the community:
“They come in pregnant, they’ve already had one. Or they come in their freshman year, they get pregnant and by their junior or senior year they’re pregnant again. Usually by a different boy.”
