Correspondent: Try Teaching Once Before Judging Pay

Try Teaching Once Before Judging Pay
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I would like to take a quick moment to address the article, "Chesterfield to Monitor Teacher Development." As a one-time substitute teacher in inner-city, Title I and non-Title I schools in Missouri and Virginia, I have had the wonderful opportunity to proudly stand in the front lines with our educators.

The performance-based rhetoric does not underline or attempt to appreciate the jobs our educators do every single day. If teachers only had to teach, I would applaud such measures, but, even as a substitute, I was more than an instructor. During my long-term opportunities, I was the counselor, the adoptive parent, the motivator, the disciplinarian, the judge, the negotiator -- and, when time allowed, the teacher.

I would like to personally challenge any lawmaker and/or supporter (especially those who've never spent time in front of a classroom) of such measures to volunteer with schools within their area and see for themselves what our teachers go through. Also, try to spend time in a Title I or city public school and see how the environment influences the school day. Then, after you've tried on the teachers' shoes, help them find ways to help solve the social issues that many of their students face outside of the classroom and often bring inside the classrooms.

Maybe if we found ways to help solve our students' social issues, teachers would be able to concentrate and be properly evaluated on doing what their contracts want them to do -- teach.

Marco L. Harris.
Richmond.