I am writing to thank you for publishing a Washington Post analysis calling attention to teachers’ salaries (“Show teachers the money,” Oct. 14, Page D1).

I was just saying last week, in a meeting of teachers and administrators at the high school where I teach, that, now that I have reached the end of my teaching days and am going to retire from it, I would never recommend to a young person that they go into teaching. The article confirms my sense that I am doing less well now than 10 years ago, notwithstanding that my salary has gone up a bit each year.

The author reports that Pew Research finds that Americans rate teachers second behind military personnel in a survey of the professions contributing the most to society. I am grateful for the second-place showing, but really and truly, teaching is the most important job in the world.

Our competitive economic system does not work well for the giving professions, like teachers and the military, i.e., professions where the people who go into them are willing to give more than they receive. The taking professions, like business, are more than happy to let the givers give; that leaves more for them to take.

When the teachers of this country look around themselves and are forced to conclude, “This system is not working for me,” there is cause for concern.

Stuart Tisdale

Portland

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