It sounds like Money McGibbon is still against education. The teachers in Maine schools are some of the best in the nation. No one knows how hard they try to teach your children, sometimes to no avail. Many people like Money are better at critizing our teachers then supporting them. Many times the teachers lack the support of the community in which they teach. Teacher certification works just like certification in many other fields.

You would not go to a doctor or a lawyer who hadn’t been through some sort of certification. Aynne Ames may be bitter about the certification process but she had just as much right to certify as any other teacher. She chose not to. The idea of lifetime job security is absolutely false. What other job has a two-year probationary period? A teacher can lose his or her job at the whim of the local school board (no training required) or at the decretion of a principal or superintendant.

Most people with the same education level as our teachers start out with salaries 50 to 100 percent higher. You say the hours are great, but you do not see the many hours put into preparation for teaching, and the summer school classes they are required to take to keep their certification.

I work with engineers every day who come to the job with their degrees in hand but are untrained for the job they have just been given. A school teacher is expected to come to the job fully prepared and fully trained. That is what the certification process is for.

Let’s support our teachers and show them our appreciation. Everyone works harder with a little praise. Len Haseltine Orland