Teachers' value beyond measure

Deep-seated frustrations often lead to confrontations that are ugly and embarrassing for all parties.

Such was the case this past Monday in Louisiana when a fifth- and sixth-grade English language teacher at the Rene Rost Middle School in Kaplan spoke out against the school board's approval of a purported $38,000 pay hike for the superintendent, noting that classroom educators "had not seen a pay raise in nearly a decade."

When Deyshia Hargrave objected to the Vermillion Parish School Board's approval of the superintendent's new contract during the board meeting's public comment period, she was escorted out by a security officer who then handcuffed her in the hallway and took her to jail, where she was booked on a charge of resisting arrest, a charge the Abbeville city prosecutor said he would not pursue.

News coverage of the former Teacher of the Year's treatment by local law enforcement after objecting to what she deems a gross professional inequity created an empathetic uproar around the country. Unfortunately, it also resulted in some extreme and reprehensible reactions, such as alleged death threats against school officials and board members, and board President Anthony Fontana further denigrating Hargrave by calling her "that poor little woman."

What just occurred in Arkansas' border state reminds us that the issue of teacher pay will always be a matter of concern for school districts, large and small, but even more important is the question of teacher value and respect.

Anyone who has achieved even a modicum of success in his or her life will quickly say that somewhere along the way, there was a teacher to guide and inspire them. Teachers have always been on the front lines of the war against ignorance and illiteracy. It is they who are in the trenches every single day, being a surrogate parent, a social worker, a sage adviser.

It is the teachers who find creative ways to make learning much more than a pedantic exercise; it is the teachers who fight through the paperwork, the ever-changing mandates and policies, the never-ending and laborious tasks, to challenge and open young minds to new possibilities.

Now, more than ever, teachers must be insightful, articulate communicators and patient listeners. They must be ambassadors for their calling, good stewards of school resources, fair and judicious disciplinarians, helpful tutors.

Good teachers outnumber the bad, but all too often the latter casts a dark shadow over those who are quietly and effectively going about the business of imparting knowledge to those young persons whose futures depend on it.

Teachers persist when others will give in and give up their aspirations. For so many, teachers are a lifeline, a personification of strength and resolve.

Teachers are at the core of what Hot Springs and Garland County schools achieve on all fronts. We should never take them for granted and we owe them our thanks.