Teacher shortage: Lift profession

I was a teacher and administrator for more than 30 years, a profession I loved. Teaching has never been given the recognition it deserves, which I attribute to it being initially a women’s vocation, but is there a more important job than educating America’s children?

As teacher shortage looms, various states have come up with ways to “fill” the positions, as if they were hiring for some low-level position: Allowing non-education graduates to teach, giving people certificates after observing teachers — all sorts of stopgap measures.

People, these are our children you are subjecting to this experiment. If there was a physician shortage, would you use similar measures? Educating our next generation is vital, not just a hope for success. It distresses me greatly we don’t recognize this crisis and work to solve the problem, including enticing young people with salaries commensurate with the responsibility the job carries and lifting the profession to the level it deserves.

The window of opportunity to solve this crisis is narrow, and it deserves immediate attention.

Jan Peterson, Seattle