Letters to the Editor
A valuable resource overlooked
Feb 14, 2008 11:54 AM
To the Editor:
Moms as teachers need F-status and schools need us.
I talked with some of my fellow teachers who have just had children. We are faced with:
- going back to work full-time and leaving our children in daycare;
- substituting from time to time for very little pay and no benefits; or
- being out of work completely.
In an urban school system that is struggling, that loses thousands of teachers every year to retirement and burnout, wouldn’t it make sense to utilize teachers on child-care leave to fill in the gaps in the system?
We are fully licensed and trained. We are already vested in our schools and their communities. We know the population of the school and the teachers we would be working with. We know the curriculum. We are young, able and willing to make a difference. We could provide academic intervention services, testing and marking of the New York State exams, curriculum writing, etc. — all the things that our school system desperately needs. And this would also lessen the burden of the classroom teacher who is already expected to do too much on her own.
I think it’s time for the Department of Education to look at this vast untapped resource of dedicated, competent teachers who are willing to work part-time.
Mary Cannone Scott
