Letter wasn’t instructive

It’s my sincerest hope that when readers take a gander at hyperbolic venting such as Ronald Deady’s Feb. 14 letter blasting Gary Crooks’ Jan. 17 column, that they are discerning enough to recognize it for just that: Empty, Trump-like accusations that accomplish nothing productive whatsoever.

How ironic that Deady uses his five-year teaching experience to indict Crooks for “educating nobody” when his very own letter is filled with little but vehement, misleading generalizations.

Crooks was merely attempting to give some historical perspective in showing that concerns over public schools are nothing new and, by inference, states that though problems do exist, we are making headway in spite of increasingly adverse conditions.

As a recently retired elementary teacher of 38 years in two very diverse settings, I couldn’t agree more. Have I seen some teachers give grades I may have disagreed with? A few times. Have I seen teachers sometimes become obsessed with non-classroom issues? Occasionally, but just because it’s not directly involving the classroom, e.g., making sure kids are fed, doesn’t mean it’s not related to the child’s acquisition of learning.

But for each of those instances, I can cite thousands of examples where my colleagues and I were giving every ounce of energy we had to making the greatest instructional impact we possibly could within the classroom. That is what we honorably did “for a living - teach.”

Warren Wheeler

Nine Mile Falls