It would be better for bishop to get to know teachers
The following is a letter to the editor of the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, May 4, 2008:
It would be better for bishop to get to know teachers
I have read the arguments Bishop Joseph Martino has made concerning the desire of the Catholic school teachers to reorganize the union that has represented them for more than 30 years.
I am very confused by the bishop’s comments, for the teacher he described I do not know, nor have I ever met that.
I have been indirectly involved in Catholic education for nearly three decades. You see, my wife, Colleen, has been teaching biology in the Catholic school systems since she received her bachelor’s degree in 1979.
She has taught at Catholic schools in Kenmore, N.Y., Aurora, Ill., Kingston and Wilkes-Barre for most of our 31 years together.
It has not been until this year that I ever heard her say that she dreaded to go to work.
The difference between this year and past years is that this year the union that represented the teachers at Bishop Hoban and Bishop O’Reilly high schools does not exist.
The administration at Holy Redeemer established her schedule – six teaching periods a day with four different preparations.
Such a schedule is not unusual among her peers. She and others in the same situation have difficulty providing the young people in their classes with the attention they need and deserve, but they manage.
This results in near daily exhaustion and intense frustration. She is unhappy. The union that the teachers want would not have allowed this situation to occur. The bishop’s “Employee Relations Program” and the Holy Redeemer administration have.
Why does she continue?
She simply loves teaching the young people in our diocese. It is a certainty that she teaches neither for money nor prestige. There is little prestige to be found in teaching, unless it comes from within.
Her teaching colleagues, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing and interacting with for many years, are not doing this for the money or prestige either. The hours they donate to their schools, their students, the parents, the diocese, are virtually uncountable.
There are many easier ways to earn money than teaching.
I sincerely hope that he bishop’s remarks were made in ignorance and that someone of his intelligence and capability realizes that the only way to correct ignorance is through education.
In this case, the education must come in the form of opening a dialogue with the teachers who have been called to teach his flock.
I urge the bishop to get to know your flock, spend some time with them, learn why they do what they do, and you will change your mind about them and their desire to organize.
At the very least, you might come to respect them as co-ministers of a faith we share.
Ralph C. Gatrone Kingston
It would be better for bishop to get to know teachers
I have read the arguments Bishop Joseph Martino has made concerning the desire of the Catholic school teachers to reorganize the union that has represented them for more than 30 years.
I am very confused by the bishop’s comments, for the teacher he described I do not know, nor have I ever met that.
I have been indirectly involved in Catholic education for nearly three decades. You see, my wife, Colleen, has been teaching biology in the Catholic school systems since she received her bachelor’s degree in 1979.
She has taught at Catholic schools in Kenmore, N.Y., Aurora, Ill., Kingston and Wilkes-Barre for most of our 31 years together.
It has not been until this year that I ever heard her say that she dreaded to go to work.
The difference between this year and past years is that this year the union that represented the teachers at Bishop Hoban and Bishop O’Reilly high schools does not exist.
The administration at Holy Redeemer established her schedule – six teaching periods a day with four different preparations.
Such a schedule is not unusual among her peers. She and others in the same situation have difficulty providing the young people in their classes with the attention they need and deserve, but they manage.
This results in near daily exhaustion and intense frustration. She is unhappy. The union that the teachers want would not have allowed this situation to occur. The bishop’s “Employee Relations Program” and the Holy Redeemer administration have.
Why does she continue?
She simply loves teaching the young people in our diocese. It is a certainty that she teaches neither for money nor prestige. There is little prestige to be found in teaching, unless it comes from within.
Her teaching colleagues, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing and interacting with for many years, are not doing this for the money or prestige either. The hours they donate to their schools, their students, the parents, the diocese, are virtually uncountable.
There are many easier ways to earn money than teaching.
I sincerely hope that he bishop’s remarks were made in ignorance and that someone of his intelligence and capability realizes that the only way to correct ignorance is through education.
In this case, the education must come in the form of opening a dialogue with the teachers who have been called to teach his flock.
I urge the bishop to get to know your flock, spend some time with them, learn why they do what they do, and you will change your mind about them and their desire to organize.
At the very least, you might come to respect them as co-ministers of a faith we share.
Ralph C. Gatrone Kingston
posted by SDACT at
8:32 AM
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