THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406030020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH:
Not just your newspaper but newspapers nationally are somewhat to blame for the rise of the National Extortion Association. Had they reported the facts about the public schools during the past 50 or more years, not 30 as Ms. Stone's letter says, a reform movement would have begun before now and the NEA would not have become a union.
{REST} It did so because teachers and principals had to band together for protection as well as to get decent salaries. They were bitter about being blamed for the bad behavior and poor performances of children they had no choice but to keep in class. They also were fearful of losing their jobs, especially those who were unable to get into administration or into colleges as professors of education. They were bitter about being rated on how well they controlled their classes instead of how well they taught.
Protection of administrators began before protection of teachers. Formation of the American Federation of Teachers as well as the refusal of some teachers to pay their NEA dues prompted the NEA to extend protection to teachers as well. Still, not all teachers are guaranteed employment. The proverbial ``low men on the totem pole'' have to go job hunting at the end of the year in spite of having contributed to the NEA.
The solution to the problem is a drastic one - abolish tax-supported schools. You won't have to go outside Norfolk to find that education can continue when schools are closed.
In 1958-59, the schools were shut to avert court-ordered integration. Classes were held in churches and other non-public buildings. The most surprising development of that era so denounced by your newspaper as folly was that the juvenile arrest record dropped while the three high schools and three junior-high schools were closed.
JOHN B. GRAVATT
Virginia Beach, May 25, 1994 by CNB