To the Editor:

This is Teacher Appreciation Week and I am hearing the usual refrain about raising teacher salaries to attract and retain more talented professionals who will improve the quality of education. I have always felt that strategy for improvement to be misguided.

Now don’t get me wrong, the work our teachers do is worth every penny of their pay, and then some. A good teacher clocks upwards of 60 hours a week for those 40 weeks of school. You do the math, their pay’s not that high. And for them to perform the way they do under the pressures they endure is truly Herculean.

But when a community agrees to fund higher teacher salaries, they understandably expect to see the quality of education improve. But too many believe that means we need to crack the whip and make teachers work even harder. Not only to work harder, but to spend an inordinate amount of time qualifying, quantifying, and documenting their work so the community can see, and judge it.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on reducing teacher workloads and stress levels? Teachers get burned out when they have to spend too much time doing things besides actually educating the students.

Our society is currently facing shortages in almost all occupations. Employers should realize that the key to attracting and retaining talented professionals is only one part money, for every three parts of treating them like the professionals that they are. So, while it is extremely nice to be appreciated with some tangible rewards this week, I think most teachers would pass them up for just a glimmer of hope for a better future in their profession.

Randi Kiely

Newtown