Educators Need Respect

I received my issue of the Montanan today and read with interest your article on Seth Bodnar. While I am excited with the prospect of Mr. Bodnar as UM’s president, I felt like the article had a negative spin on “career educators.” I hold a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from UM and have a school library media endorsement from the UM as well. I am proud to be a “career” educator. I felt like the article looked down on people who choose to be educators or people who choose to stay in education and make it their career, rather than a starting point. It irked me that the article said his father “rose from teacher to superintendent,” as if teaching is something to “rise” from and that “although he lacked for nothing growing up, his parents weren’t rich.”

We struggle to recruit and maintain quality educators. One of the things that makes this difficult is the low amount of respect educators are given by the general public, and in this case, the author and editors of the article.

Jessica Dufresne M.Ed. ’07
Hamilton