To the Editor:

After reading Keith Kaye’s Feb. 23 missive on Natalie Munroe, the state of American public education, teachers unions and teachers in general, several things are obvious to me. For one, Mr. Kaye doesn’t know or doesn’t talk to many people who have ever taught in the public schools. If he had the most basic, current knowledge of teachers or our public schools, Mr. Kaye would know that there are many teachers who speak openly about their students, parental involvement and other school related issues. These same teachers are in your neighborhood and community every day. How is it that one doesn’t hear what they have to say?

As someone who spent many years teaching America’s young people, I would urge Mr. Kaye to spend some time in a public school and become better informed about what actually happens in them before making blanket generalizations. Base your opinions on something more substantial than items gleaned from news fragments or the banter that takes place in a barbershop.

It is also obvious to me that Mr. Kaye represents a conservative agenda that blames teachers and their unions for all of the ills that face our public schools. If Mr. Kaye was truly informed, as I’m sure he once was when he represented thousands of UAW members, he would know the overwhelming majority of teachers today are people who work extremely hard to educate their students despite the many obstacles placed in their way by school systems, parents and sometimes even the students themselves.

Furthermore, to believe that in 1964 teachers intentionally gave up discipline and curricular standards is ludicrous. This is a statement that is so bizarre that it would require much more than this space to fully respond to it.

Mr. Kaye made one statement that I wholeheartedly agree with: “Teachers have been abused over the years and their suffering should stop.” Mr. Kaye, and his ilk should dial back on some of their uninformed verbal abuse. That would go a long way toward making that suffering stop.

Ronald Harps

Lehigh Acres