The overemphasis on evaluating teachers with minimal emphasis on helping them will have the unintended consequences of degrading the love and joy of learning that every educator should work to impart to his or her students. When students are tested and teachers are “evaluated” based on the results, education is inevitably reduced to drills or test preparation.

Innate curiosity, the passion for discovery, critical thinking and creativity itself will be stifled with such an academic approach. This is a recipe for conformity and neither innovation nor diversity, which have been the bedrock of American economic and cultural strength since our country’s inception.

We should adhere to the words of Albert Einstein: “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

Larry Hoffner, retired