LETTER TO THE EDITOR:Teachers deserve more respect, pay

Much has been written lately about honoring the reasonably well-paid occupations in our society, but little, if anything, has been written or spoken about the occupation that is, or should be, the No. 1 priority.

What is that No. 1-priority job? Could it be lawyer or doctor, or chief executive or accountant, or city-county executive or elected official, or engineer, architect, police office or firefighter?

Nope, none of the above, even though all are paid much more than the No. 1-priority occupation. Some salaries are more than $100,000 annually; others make several hundred thousand dollars or more yearly while CEOs make millions. The No. 1-priority occupation earns, on average, about $65,000 annually, with some practitioners making less than that figure.

And what is the No. 1-priority occupation? Why teachers, of course.

Not college professors, but elementary, middle and high school teachers. Is not the education of our young people the most important aspect of our society — or, for that matter, of any society? Don’t we all want our children’s intelligence, creativity and talents to be brought forth so that each one of them can reach the zenith of their ability in whatever occupation they choose, be it teacher, doctor, lawyer, business executive, artist, musician, engineer, nurse, architect or something else?

Obviously, our children are the future leaders of our city and our nation.

But the future will be bleak indeed if our young people cannot compete with those in Europe, China, Japan and Russia.

Good, well-paid teachers are the solution. The time for nickel-and-dime-ing for aimless rhetoric and looking back to the good old days is over.

We must consider honoring our teachers much more than we do now and, above all, advocate for teacher salary scales at least at the level of other public executives and management employees.

DICK SEELEY

La Crescenta