A teacher speaks up

I am sick and tired of people bad-mouthing teachers (“Homegrown assimilation,” Comment & Features, January 4).

I taught English and computers for 30 years. I know what Kaf-tet B’November is because my school studied it every year. I cannot name all five books of the Torah, and I’m pretty sure a general studies teacher can’t teach the use of simple present tense in English any more than I could give a Bible lesson.

Teachers know how to teach the subjects they’re supposed to teach, and they have no more reason than a banker, for example, to know other subjects. The question is, are they properly teaching their subjects?

Every time someone writes an article about bringing in good teachers, they are insulting the thousands of good teachers already in the system. Maybe the problem isn’t the teachers.

I invite Amichai Shikli to try and teach a class in which two or three kids have ADHD and aren’t getting treatment because their parents don’t believe anything is wrong. Try and assign homework and have only half the class show up with it, with their parents making every excuse in the book. Try and teach over the noise of kids talking during the lesson instead of learning.

Teachers have absolutely no tools to enforce discipline, so please stop blaming them. As long as 60% of a lesson is taken up with disciplinary problems, I don’t see the situation improving anytime soon. LEAH REBICHIA

Gonen