During my younger years the people that     influenced me the most, other than my parents, were my school teachers. I had many great teachers that demanded my respect and inspired me. They made me reach out in search of the whys and what ifs. They helped me set my standards that would stay with me the rest of my life. I even entered college in hopes of becoming a teacher one day. But this was not in my future. I turned and took another path.
    Out teachers today are very important to our children. These teachers have the future sitting in their classrooms. The better the education of our children, the better equipped they will be to survive on their own in this world of ours (soon to be theirs).
    The key to this education is good parenting and good teachers. We all muddle through parenting. It's not easy, sometimes not fair, mistakes are made, but we get through. But teachers......Now here we have some choices. We can fully support these teachers in their tasks, pay them a fair wage and provide the proper materials required for the education of our children or... I do not like to think about the "or". It is too important to our future to neglect the education system. We need to stop using our schools as day care centers and ensure they become excellent education facilities. The teaching profession needs to be made attractive enough to draw in the high quality people that can inspire our children. There are many of this type people in our school system now, but we could loose them to other occupations so that they can support themselves and their families. We can not afford to let this happen. Better educated / motivated people have a much lower chance of ending up on state / federal welfare lists, unemployment lists, food stamp lists, etc. These [programs cost all of us. Let's all get behind the teachers. Support them. Get them what they need to do their job. Don't let the education of our children go down the drain.

by cwodave© 1994
updated 2000