Lack of discipline drives out teachers

I couldn’t help but smile when I read the article about the plans for luring teachers to our city (“Proposals target CCSD teacher shortage,” Wednesday Review-Journal).

I retired from the school district five years ago and have since been working as a substitute teacher. I don’t understand why we must reinvent the wheel every three to five years. We have been teaching our children for more than 250 years. You would think by now we would have figured out what works and what doesn’t.

When all the the details are revealed about these lofty plans, I hope that one of them addresses the real reason (other than low wages) that causes teachers to leave the state — and sometimes the profession — in droves. I stopped teaching because I spent too much time dealing with unruly students whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to disrupt the class.

And it’s just getting worse.

I could never understand why no one bothered to ask me, either at the school level or at the district level, why I chose to retire rather than continue teaching. Maybe it is because they might not have liked my answer.

William D. Cuff

Henderson

Classroom drones

I can’t help but wonder if the two community organizations addressing the teacher shortage in Clark County — Nevadans for the Common Good and Nevada Succeeds — discussed these shortages with teachers who actually work in the trenches. I have my doubts.

Pay is not the issue. Training is not the issue. If you want to adequately address teacher shortages, the issue of absurd working conditions must be alleviated. Packed classrooms, inadequate facilities, ridiculous 15-page evaluations, cumbersome self-directed improvement plans, work schedules leaving barely enough time to go to the bathroom that mandate hours of preparation at home, inept and unqualified supervisors, etc.

Making teachers feel like professionals instead of worker bees will go a long way toward reducing teacher shortages.

Robert Bencivenga

Henderson

Not qualified

It seems as if every day there is another article about the dire state caused by the Clark County School District’s inability to hire qualified teachers. This may be one reason for the shortage:

A woman with 25 years of teaching experience as a math teacher in California and Idaho, fluent in Spanish and a USC graduate, applied with the school district only to be told that the district does not recognize credentials from either of those states.

The only reply I had was, “Really?” How sad that was my response. But I was so stunned nothing else came to mind.

Considering the fact Nevada is near the bottom of the 50-state rung in a number of education rankings, this makes no sense to me. There is absolutely no doubt that the hiring process for our schools needs to be revamped.

Judith Smith

Logandale

Mad dog

Recent events prove that we simply cannot have bleeding-heart liberal judges at any level (“Judge defends bail decision,” Tuesday Review-Journal).

The No. 1 priority of any judge should be to protect innocent lives. No other factor should even be considered. If a person acts like a mad dog, he should be treated like one would treat a mad dog.

No sympathy.

Verlon Berkenmeyer

North Las Vegas