This was written in response to a published letter from a retired police officer "applauding our Florida legislature..." for ["making these teachers do away with their "feel good" teaching methods and teach reading, writing, and arithmetic."].  He went on to call two longtime educators' pieces on the current fate of education as "whiny" and suggested teachers who weren't "doing their job" follow suit of one of the educators and retire.  By the way, the retired educator has taught kindergarten for 32 years and was our ORANGE COUNTY Teacher of the Year several years ago...

Dear Editor:

It has now been a full hour since I read the published letter written by Mr. Allen Mertz in response to the article, "Faulty Paint by Numbers" in your May 3rd edition.  I am now past feeling disbelief and onto feeling offended and outraged.  I shouldn't be so surprised-this is just another scathing and misinformed opinion among a sea of others.  What separates this from your run of the mill spit at education is Mr. Mertz' personal attack on two very passionate and dedicated educators who chose to speak out against something definitely worth speaking out against.  These are two people who have committed over 50 years to our greatest national and natural resources, our children.  Their words were written with great pain and purpose, and Mr. Mertz dismissed them as "whiny" and unfounded.  Did you know that one of the biggest predictors of a child's success in school is a loving and secure relationship with a primary adult caregiver or teacher?  And now we count one less of those loving teacher/caregivers…

As a person with no skills or background in police work, I wouldn't dream of writing a public piece criticizing the force and telling the men and women who serve, "Do your job or hit the bricks!"  Especially when that job is dictated by privately schooled legislators, fabricated statistics, and outright false claims of inadequacy.  Do your research-education is NOT improving in Florida.  The FCAT, SAT, and any one of the other standardized tests now impeding on our authentic teaching time, are not predictors of true successful educational achievement and more importantly, success in life.  I don't have enough hard drive space to cite all the disparaging discrepancies and blatant untruths in this country's mudsling publicity movement against public education (however, if you'll print it, I'll write it!).  Did you know that another major predictor of success in school is a teacher who is skilled in meeting each child's individual needs, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses?

Teachers continue to "do their jobs" despite little respect, inadequate pay and funding, and the professional merit of a jackal.  Yet we toil on.  Perhaps the most disheartening part of being a teacher are the increasingly inappropriate expectations and standards being heaped upon our children by legislators who know next to naught about child development and have rarely set foot into one of our plentiful public institutions.  Public school doors are open. These are the same legislators who educate their children privately where the advantages and ratios go beyond the spectrum of this letter.  I cherish the day when we can stop pointing fingers and get down to business in making things better for our children.

My children are not paint by number kits.  They are living canvases-some come with bright and beautiful portraits already started.  Some come with dark and stormy portraits which would frighten even Edward Munch.  My job is to turn them into masterpieces, each in their own way.  I just wish those policy makers miles away from me would let me "do my job."

I close with an invitation to Mr. Mertz.  Come spend a day with me and my children.  See if my job starts and ends with reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Meet the children I teach.  See their varying backgrounds, abilities, needs.  Meet one of the teachers you write about with such contempt.  Walk in my shoes and share my experience and knowledge and passion.  Then tell me again how to "do my job."

Tiffany Chancey Taylor
Kindergarten Teacher
Orange County Public Schools