It’s a tragedy that the teaching profession does not get the respect in our country that it does in others [“Pay It Backward,” August/September]. If the local and national media were to report all that classroom teachers do (and how much more we’re expected to do every year), then perhaps our profession would get the respect it deserves.
I teach in a Catholic school and earn $27,450 after 26 years in education, with a master’s degree. But it’s what I love, and I work hard for my students. I know my counterparts in public education do the same. We carry out the mandates from the districts and states we serve, and that is much more difficult and deserving of merit than those who write from on high.
Margarete Schels
Cambridge, Wisconsin
