To the Editor:

I believe in arming teachers. Arm them with smaller class sizes. Arm them with invaluable teaching assistants and counselors. Arm them with current books, computers, software, learning materials and well-stocked libraries. Arm them with supplies that they don’t have to buy out of their own pockets. Arm them wit trained resource officers and registered nurses in each school. Allow them to have a lunch period that doesn’t involve other duties. Provide adequate planning sessions. Allow them bathroom breaks.

Assure that they have supervisors and administrators who understand and support them, and a Board of Education that puts the education of children before other considerations Arm them with involved parents/guardians who support the teacher both in and out of school. Support them in their continuing education efforts. Provide adequate support staff to provide non-teaching functions such as hall, bus and smoking monitors, and crews to ensure clean, sanitary surroundings. Arm them with a community that values and respects them. And, it should go without saying, pay them well, very well, as they are giving their lives to the most important investment we have, our children.

Perhaps then, with this arsenal of weapons, we’ll have teachers who can effectively use their skills to assess a troubled student’s needs, intervene early and mobilize resources that may turn a child around and help them to become successful. Once we properly arm our teachers with ammunition that we know works, maybe, just maybe, we will have gone a long way to preventing school violence, and we will no longer have to have ”our hearts and prayers are with you,” and candlelight vigils.

I am not a teacher, nor do I currently have children in school. I am just a concerned citizen who believes that if we let teachers be teachers, we’ll get a much better bang for our buck.

 

Kathy Vasquez

Chocowinity