Letter: Acknowledging role, talent of teachers

Thursday, March 30, 2006 | 6:35 a.m.

In response to Ken Zelasko's March 25 letter, headlined "What your children learn from teachers," might I say that it could have been written by me more than 40 years ago?

As a former teacher of English and social studies, I too "made" students do the very same things that Mr. Zelasko does in his classroom and, I dare say, outside his classroom.

That old cliche that he quotes - "those who can, do, and those who can't, teach" - is the most asinine and ridiculous statement ever. Who teaches the doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, the scientists and the embryonic scholars?

Did they learn these professions by themselves, or did they suddenly acquire all that knowledge overnight, or perhaps in a dream? Is it possible that there were teachers involved who urged them to study, learn and accomplish whatever goals they had in mind?

A million kudos to you, Mr. Zelasko. I would have loved to have been a colleague of yours.

Salvatore J. La Magra, Henderson