Letter of the Day: Signing off

Editor, Daily News:

After teaching 46 years, I have a few thoughts as I retire.

When I began teaching, John Kennedy was president and society for the most part held teachers in high regard and was extremely supportive of them.

As I leave teaching, George Bush is president, his brother is my governor and, oh, my, the changes we're seeing.

Today almost everyone considers himself more of an expert on education than the teacher.

My personal assessment of teaching today is that it's better than ever. Teachers in most schools I'm familiar with are not only meeting the needs of much more diverse student populations, they're doing better jobs under more adverse conditions.

Yes, there are serious problems in education, but they have little to do with the quality of today's teachers.

They have more to do with ambitious, meddling politicians; with remarkably poorly designed accountability measures; with too many parents with priorities other than their children; and with far too much unnecessary paperwork.

Sometimes they have to do with administrators with the wrong priorities, with inadequate reporting, or even with school board members who are more concerned with political posturing than with learning from those who really know what students need.

Despite these changes and problems, I want to say that teaching remains a wonderful profession. I have been privileged to teach with some of the best teachers anywhere during my tenure. I will miss both them and teaching.

John Hancock, Ph.D. , Teacher, Naples High School