| 4 TheDallas Post Dallas, PA Wednesday, February 12, 1992 T=DarrasPost Eee va Union exaggerates teachers' importance "a - El lie ie =e rs’ union in this and other newspapers in the past few months. e tone of the reports has varied from balanced coverage of the situation to outright hostility against teachers. One consis- tency on both sides has been to exaggerate the role teachers ‘play in society. Opponents of higher salaries say that many teachers are overpaid in relation to their skills, while the eachers’ champions claim that educators hold the future success of the nation in their hands. Both sides are wrong to assign so much influence to teachers. There are a couple of fallacies at work in accepting this osition. First, no correlation has been found between the mount of money spent per pupil (which is mostly in teacher alaries) and the corresponding educational achievement. In an opinion page piece recently in The New York Times, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York used the fact that North akota students scored highest on math SAT's to advance a eory that proximity to the Canadian border was a more portant determining factor in math achievement than was “spending. His research showed a far stronger relationship «between geography and score than between spending and ore. The second big mistake being made is an overemphasis on the influence of teacher performance on students. The plain | fact is that students who come to school ready and willing to | learn will do so regardless of the skill level of the teacher. All of | | us have had good teachers and bad, and thus it always shall | be. The best teachers are those who know and love their “subject, not those who have taken the most courses on teaching + theory or creative blackboard arrangement. That's one impor- “tant difference between the American education system and | “that of many other nations’; we teach a lot about teaching, they te teach about subjects. Perhaps all the huff-and-puff about teacher salaries is a symptom of larger issues in American life. Maybe the mis- i placed emphasis on what teachers do and how much they make replaces the energy we should be spending on our children’s development — and our own. Could it be that we expect someone else to solve our problems, teach our children and save the world? It has never worked that way, and is unlikely to do so now. The status that the teachers’ union attempts to gain for its h members is similar to the standing that computer operators 3 a once held; sort of a modern-day medicine man without whose i aid we would be lost in an unfamiliar world. This “You're nothing without us” concept is nonsense, and parents of successful students know it. Do good teachers help their students to learnmore? Of course they do, and it would be good if their compensation reflected that fact, as well as the reverse. It would be even better if bad teachers could be removed from the classroom. Until that can be done, we should all free our- selves from the misguided notion that we owe teachers a debt of gratitude for doing their jobs. They're members of society too, and any benefit they provide affects them as much as anyone else. i For the moment, the question isn’t whether or not teachers in the Dallas district deserve a nine or 10 percent annual raise; at is simply too much to justify in the present economy no atter how skilled or valuable they are. Many of the people who pay taxes to support the schools have seen their incomes grow slightly, if at all in the past two years, and they are right to + expect teachers to share the burden of a stagnant economy. . To their credit, Dallas teachers haven't walked off the job or . given any indication that they intend to, as their representa- ~ » tives negotiate with the administration. That display of respon- » sibility has been welcome, and it is to be hoped that it will = continue until an acceptable settlement is reached. :Do you agree? Disagree? ~ Editorials are the opinion of the management of The Dallas Post. « We welcome your opinion on contemporary issues in the form of «. letters to the editor. If you don't write, the community may never ~ i+ hear a contrasting point of view. Send letters to: The Dallas Post, | t+ P.O. Box 366, Dallas, PA 18612. Please include your name, address |v. and a daytime phone number so that we may verify authenticity. «. We reserve the right to edit for length and grammar. Te DarLasCPosr Published Weekly by Bartsen Media, Inc. P.O. Box 366, Dallas PA 18612 Telephone: 717-675-5211 Ronald A. Bartizek Charlotte E. Bartizek. Editor and Publisher Associate Publisher Production Manager Classified/typesetting Bd Peggy Young Eric Foster 1 Advertising Acct. Exec. Reporter B2] Paul Rismiller Olga Kostrobala Jean Hillard Office Manager MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION AND THE PENNSYLVANIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER'S ASSOCIATION . — -— Ih IRAN Guidelines offered to those on ‘fixed incomes for tax forgiveness Rep. Phyllis Mundy, Kingston, wants to remind residents, espe- “cially senior citizens and those on Ba fixed income, filing for the spe- vcial income tax forgiveness to 'g.closely follow the instructions on - yo pages 27 through 29 of PA 40 tax 1: form. RE 1 “In order to claim the tax for- 'giveness on line 14a, you must 0 read instructions on page 27 bit determine if you're eligible for J this tax forgiveness using the Eli- | | abi Income Table on page 29 f Zand then record the amount on 1 «your tax form,” Mundy explained. ¥ The Department of Revenue i i i mR mE provides a free income tax prepa- ration service for individuals who are elderly, on a fixed or limited income, handicapped or house- bound. Uncomplicated federal, state and local income tax returns are prepared by the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly pro- grams. Mundy encourages residents who think they may qualify to contact the Pennsylvania Revenue Department district offices for in- formation or call the Internal Reve- nue Service's toll free number at 1- 800-829-1040. RI Sede 5 Lai A a a a RRR SN Chow time in winter Photo by Charlotte Bartizek Letters — Says teacher raise foes are minority Editor: As a member of this community since 1979, I would like to voice my support for excellence in public education. It is the obligation of all taxpayers and community mem- bers to support public education for all children. This obligation exists whether or not we have or have ever had children in the public school system. Teachers in the Dallas School District are experienced profession- | als. Therefore, we should expect to pay these people well. They are mentors to students and new teachers. I feel that it is crucial that we recognize that the current taxpayer protests may not represent the majority opinion in the controversy over the teachers’ salaries and program budget for the Dallas School District. At a recent meet- ing of the School Board a group of about 70 people assembled to voice their opinions about the wage freeze. Superficially, it would ap- pear that the supporters of a wage freeze represent the majority opin- ion. Recently, I noticed that some- one put up a sign on Route 309 near DAMA which reads, “Sound Horn If You Support a Freeze on Dallas Teacher Wages.” Here was an opportunity to obtain real numbers in order to estimate more accurately the level of support for this position. A count was taken on Thursday, Feb. 6,. 1992 during the afternoon rush hour near the sign. Total honks and total cars plus pick-up trucks were counted. Of 946 cars or pick-up trucks, only 14 vehicles honked their horns in a half-hour period-1.5% of the total. Trucks and buses were ex- cluded from the survey. From these datal conclude that the vocal group of community members showing up at the School Board meetings is simply a well-organized but insig- nificant minority. Continuity in educational expe- rience is essential to the present and future well-being of this com- munity and our state and nation. Our security depends on making generous financial commitments to the schools through our taxes and personal support of school programs. Let us not allow an insignificant but vocal group of people ruin the future of quality education in our community. James M. Case Trucksville J W.J. This is what we lost in Vietham By J.W. JOHNSON In a few months will be the 22nd anniversary marking the death of anti-war protestors at Kent State University. Earlier will be the 17th anniversary of Saigon's fall. This year will also mark another anni- versary for me as it will be yet another year when I can't quite bring myself to visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington. Nevertheless, I find myself drawn to books and movies about the subject. For the longest time I couldn't talk about Vietnam. Not that I had shot anyone, or had even been fired upon. No, I was safe and secure. As a vehicle mechanic in a United States Air Force combat support group, my part in the Vietnam nightmare was making sure that pilots and support personnel made it to those B-52's so that bombs could be dropped on hundreds of people at atime. I didn't have to look anyone in the eye when I killed them. And our guys did their jobs well. My unit even received a Presidential Unit Citation. I'm not proud of that citation, nor of my indirect responsibility for the deaths of many people. But I did my duty, the job my country asked me to do. And I entered the Vietnam War as a wrapped-in-the- flag-patriot; I left, honorably dis- charged, but under threat of disci- plinary action for a refusal to remove an MIA bracelet from my wrist. All of the preceding is both ca- tharsis for me, and prologue for you. Prologue to telling you about abookIrecently read by Col. Harry Summers called On Strategy. The book has been described as the “definitive analysis” of war, and is now used as a student text at the Army, Navy and Air War Colleges. I recommend it to you. However, and while I will never be proud of my part in the war, many persons, including Sum- mers, make the mistake of saying the United States lost the war in Vietnam. That theme is central, for example, in the Clint Eastwood film, Heartbreak Ridge. But Summers, and many oth- ers who've made this claim are just plain wrong. Summers’ book repeatedly states that we lost the war. That is also the public's perception. The truth is that U.S. military forces won all the major battles and had the country under control when President Richard Nixon—bowing to extreme and (appropriate) pub- lic pressure—began pulling U.S. military forces out of Vietnam. on In the sense that our corrupt and self-serving ally South Viet- nam was finally overrun, the war there was lost. But it wasn't lost by the U.S. Army, Air Force or Navy. It was lost by south Vietnamese forces. U.S. military forces won its war. Had those forces stayed, South Vietnam wouldn't be Communist today. Civilian objectors (and by 1970 I was an in-service objector) forced the troop recall. And it will remain incorrect to say U.S. forces lost the war, a view which unfortunately has become almost a cliche in today's discussion of that tragic misstep by Washington. U.S. political leadership blun- dered, strategy was confused and yet the U.S. military accomplished assigned goals. As Summers points out in his book, these were inade- quate goals, but as long as U.S. military forces were there, Viet- nam remained non-communist. Nixon and President Ford with- drew U.S. forces, having no other choice, rightly so; only after that was South Vietnam conquered. U.S. forces left victorious. And while, in my mind, the credit for that will always remain a heavy burden for me personally, the fact remains, we didn't lose the war in Vietnam, What we lost, collectively and individually, was our innocence, ....Sfc. Emory Kitchen's. Nig \ recovered from C Only 5s yesterday 60 Years Ago - Feb. 12, 1932 SHOE REPAIR SHOP OPENS IN DALLAS | Women representing eve neighborhood and vicinity met at the home of Mrs. George Beehler to form a committee to make plans for a card party and dance to be held at College Misericordia for the benefit of needy families of the region. In order to have the com- mittee function more efficiently in raising and distribution of funds a Dallas Community Club was formed. Joseph Anthony has opened his new up-to-date shoe repair shop in the Garinger Building on Main St., Dallas. New machinery of the latest type and design has been installed so Mr. Anthony can ren- der first class service in the quick- est time. Junior class of Kingston Twp., High School is preparing for its annual class play “Go Slow, Mary” a comedy which will be given Feb. 22 and 23 at the Shavertown Mgs Church. i 50 Years Ago - Feb. 13, 1942 5 ARMOUR LEATHER OF: NOXEN SENDS PRODUCTS TO RUSSIA Dallas High School Band ap- peared for the first time in its. new uniforms at the Fourth Class Djs- trict Teachers Association in, the high school auditorium Monday night. The Band Parents Associa- tion acknowledged a gift of $100 from Joseph MacVeigh and: gx- pressed its gratitude to James Oliver and Harold Titman for ge - erous gifts. #'y) Pay increases retroactive: to November 1, 1941, and totaling more than $7,000 were distrib- uted to employes of Armour Leather Co. at Noxen on Wednesday. The big plant is busy on war orders;for heavy leather and much of-its present output is being sent. ko Russia. Donald J. Warmouth forapr Shavertown resident is serving as chaplain at Fort Knox, Ky. Emma Ruth Shaver to wed Wm. J. Broad, tomorrow. fy A Ca 40 Years Ago - Feb. 15, 1952 $n JOHN WAYNE STARS IN' 'FLYING LEATHERNECK! cosa River, by a fisherman. Stationed a McClellan, but off duty, ior was operating a speed boat , when the boat capsized throwing ‘him and his companion in to the swiftly moving stream. The second hy has not been recovered. “Flying Leatherneck” in tech: color starring John Wayne and Robert Ryan now playing at Be Himmler Theatre. Engaged - Joan Coolbaughio Donald Britt; Joan Edith Cragle to Seaman Richard L. Culver. ip 30 Years Ago - Feb. 15, 1962 SHAVERTOWN POST AI OFFICE HELD UP BY FEDERAL OVERNMENT Acceptance of the new Shaver- town Post Office by the U.S. Gov- ernment is being held up pending an appeal from the contract rental price by Wyoming National Bank of Wilkes-Barre, owner of the build- ing according to Superintendentof Mails, G.P. Finn, Wilkes-Barre: Pa. Fish Commission trout stocking program gets underway tomorrow afternoon when four trucks containing 4,000 Breok Trout and 4,000 Rainbow Trout will arrive at the Alderson section of Harveys Lake. Huntsville defeated East Dallas 49-40 thus wrapping up "17: Church League championship: Therese's beat Shavertown 54-52 and Harveys Lake was victorious over Prince of Peace 61-53. Two arch rivals Dallas and Lake- Lehman basketball teams weill go at it Friday at 8 p.m. in the Lake- Lehman gym. Engaged - Carol A. Rother; to Frederick Hons. Wed - Ruth Gordon Weed to George Shupp. Anniversary - Mr. and Mrs. Morris Lloyd, 65 years. Wy 20 Years Ago - Feb. 17, 1972-., MISERICORDIA BUILDS NEW GIRLS DORM Exterior construction on Col- lege Misericordia's new $2 million girls’ dormitory has nearly reached completion as workmen contfriue to lay brick facing. It will be open for occupancy with the opening of the fall semester this year. A petition from Dug Road Area Taxpayers Association was “Pre- sented to Kingston Township Board of Supervisors at its February 9 meeting, voicing their request to be included on the Dallas Area Municipal Authority sewer system. A third full time police officer for Dallas Borough was sworn in at the borough council meeting Tues- day night. Patrolman Ronald Dudik will assume his duties immedi- ately. ind 19 A —————————r— OE eT i ikeyg
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers