Teachers Can, and Do

Have you heard the expression, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach?" Let me set the record straight. Teachers can, and do. What teachers do is often vastly undervalued. Let me paraphrase a poem by Taylor Mali in which a rich lawyer derides the much, much, much smaller salary of a teacher. That lawyer asks the teacher point-blank, "What do you make?" In the interest of space, let me summarize, sanitize and paraphrase the answer.

The teacher said: "I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor winner and an A- feel like a slap in the face. How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best."

The poem continues. "I make kids wonder...question...criticize...write, write, write, read and spell words over and over and over again until they will never misspell that word again ... I make them show all of their work in math, and hide it on their final drafts in English."

"What do I make?  I make a difference," the teacher said.

Thank you LAUSD teachers for making a difference.

Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines