Teachers throughout America work hard to educate their students. They are truly America’s unsung heroes.

Recently, I received the following email from a retired teacher regarding the article I wrote about my dyslexic son. “I completely understand your frustration of not finding help for your dyslexic son in the 1970s. As a retired 33-year veteran public school teacher, I can tell you that I was completely untrained to care for the needs of a child with dyslexia or other handicaps that some of my students faced.

“I had students who were legally blind, legally deaf, had ADD, ADHD, were emotionally disturbed, etc. They were mainstreamed into classes with students at all levels of learning and I was expected to make adjustments for them while teaching the other 120-plus. As teachers rallying for support at the state capital we would chant, ‘We stack them deep and teach them cheap.’

“When I first began teaching there were no ‘special ed’ teachers. They didn’t come on the scene until the mid-70s. For various reasons, many of the learning-disabled students were still being mainstreamed in the late ’70s. Toward the end of my teaching tenure, we were told to not give these students an ‘F.’ They were put on an individualized education plan (IEP) and, while students who only had ‘normal’ learning problems were expected to write 20 sentences or read 20 pages (as examples), students on the IEP were told to do only five sentences or pages.

“This meant that when I made an eligibility list each week, the students on the IEP were eligible to play sports and take part in extracurricular activities, because I could not give him/her an ‘F’ because that would make them ineligible to participate in sports or extracurricular activities. I would have gladly welcomed a parent who could tell me that he/she had found a school that could help their child. I agree with you that parents should have more choices in schools for their children.”

Teachers never stop learning. That is truly an understatement. To qualify for employment, they are required to have a college degree and state certification. Their contracts also require they work on their own time, evenings and summers at their own expense to earn advanced certifications and master’s degrees. Other requirements include keeping their computer skills current and including them in the learning curve, maintaining a safe environment, and recognizing signs of anti-social behavior, etc. By the way, they are also required to teach and do so with limited resources such as chalk, computer, a few books and a bulletin board.

Teachers spend an average of $500 or more per year of their own money to buy supplies needed to teach their students. I know this to be true because my daughter-in-law teaches sixth grade and a couple in our neighborhood are both teachers.

Teachers are expected to do extraordinary things with a big smile while receiving a starting salary that in many states qualifies them for food stamps.

If you can read this, support a teacher. Send your child’s teacher a nice thank you note and maybe even include a gift card they can use to purchase something special. Teachers need our appreciation. They are our unsung heroes.

Email Betty Heath at begeheath690.