“Removing barriers between policy and practice” [VPerspective, May 5] by Evelyn DeJesus, the UFT vice president for education, brought tears to my eyes.

In my second career, I taught English for 15 years in a comprehensive high school in the Bronx. Each and every policy and decision from Washington, D.C., and Albany was wrong-headed. I began to write articles about this and got published often. The one consistent thread in my thinking and writing was that teachers never were consulted or interviewed in the press.

The meeting DeJesus writes about represents the beginning of an upward projection of reason and teaching expertise that will filter into policy, for sure. So-called “reformers” beware. Teachers — the people who actually know things — are coming.

Thank you ever so much for your work. You have boosted us all.

Dianne B. Stillman, retired