A teacher’s legacy and the hole she will leave behind

Re: “One more question for a legendary Grand Junction teacher,” May 31 Megan Schrader column.

Thank you to Megan Schrader for her opinion piece on teacher Lorena Thompson. While I never had her for class, the work she was doing with Grand Junction High School’s RISE program is the kind of work that must be done everywhere.

As a GJHS graduate (1988), now with a PH.D. in sociology — with my primary research area being educational inequality and reform — I am disappointed that the RISE program will not be sustained. Eliminating social inequalities isn’t easy, but programs like RISE do a make a dramatic difference.

The difference they make is not just for individuals; successful programs like RISE have intergenerational impacts as well as positive impacts on the community as a whole. Patrick Mcginty, Vermont, Ill.

Lorena Thompson leaves a mindblowing legacy. What a privilege to read her story. As a retired Denver teacher, I’d have been so honored to have had her as a colleague. Kudos to Colorado Mesa University for blessing her students post-high school. Carol Mackell, Littleton

Megan Schrader’s column on teacher extraordinaire Lorena Thompson was both uplifting and heartbreaking. This country is filled with hard-working, dedicated and loving teachers, administrators, para-pros and volunteers. We spend more money per pupil than almost any place on the planet, yet here we go again in Mesa County with what Schrader calls “another promised quick fix for public education’s many failures.”

This is insanity. Today your average automobile is an engineering wonder. Your smartphone has more computing power than the computers which sent Americans to the moon. Tremendous advancements everywhere you look, but not in the public school system. The difference is freedom and the individual genius it unleashes.

Before we let another young life be damaged, we must have the courage and faith to bring freedom to K-12 public education. It works everywhere else; it will work in K-12, too. As Thompson shows, amazing results are possible if we would only allow freedom to work its wonders. John Conlin, Littleton

Retiring Grand Junction High School teacher Lorena Thompson started a college prep program called RISE, in which she found freshmen with significant risk factors and accelerated their learning. RISE is now being phased out. Thinkstock by Getty Images