Why most teachers teach

By By Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
My wife Nancy has taught school, mostly first grade, for 40 years. She jokingly says that unlike her students she “has just never been promoted.”
Throughout our 45 years of living together our home has been a constant clutter of pens of all sizes and descriptions, manuals, construction paper, stacks of children’s books, homemade games, school projects in various stages, costumes for school plays and lunch money check lists. The Saint James school directory is her most valued phone book.
And she constantly reminds me, she “doesn’t know what it is to have a lunch hour.”
As the 2008-09 school year begins, Nancy and the rest of the teaching profession are back doing what I consider one of the most difficult and important jobs in America.
In 1966, while working on her Masters Degree at Florence State College she began teaching first grade in the Muscle Shoals public schools. Her starting salary was $4,800. Now, with four decades of experience, two degrees and a Double-A Certificate in Early Childhood Education, which she earned while teaching fulltime and raising our four children, her pay is less than that of our youngest child. Admittedly, hers’ is private school pay now, but it’s not a whole lot better in the public schools.
Nancy obviously continues to teach because she loves it, and certainly not for the money, except in those early years, particularly in 1967 when I left for basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. and she was teaching with a brand new baby. Thankfully, we had Sudie, a lady we will always appreciate, and who kept our first born during the day.
At the close of last year’s school year Nancy brought home a card from one of her six-year-olds to show me one of the reasons she continues to love the art of teaching. It read:
At the end of the school year she always cries as her “babies” are promoted to 2nd grade, then looks toward her new class and making new plans over the summer.
So the next time you see a teacher, take time to say “Thank You.” I know how hard most of them work.
Gov. Bob Riley said last week that expanding gambling in Birmingham is the wrong way to generate money, and he’ll oppose efforts to legalize bingo in the city.
It is interesting that Gov. Riley had no problem in taking millions in campaign money from Mississippi gambling interests in his first campaign for governor. That was certainly a good “revenue source”…for his campaign.
Many have also questioned why he permits the Creek Indian Casinos to operate without paying the state any funds in lieu of taxes, when he could enter into a compact with them and provide the state millions of dollars each year. And if you don’t believe they are making big bucks, just drive by the new high-rise casino and hotel at Atmore. Because of Gov. Riley’s position the state isn’t getting a penny from the Creeks.
We know that the real reason Gov. Riley plays this little game about gambling…taking Mississippi casino money for his campaign, but rejecting gambling money to help our failing state budget…is because of his dislike for Milton McGregor. I believe that vindictive approach is a poor excuse for a policy to refuse millions for the state’s budgets or allow Jefferson County, about to bankrupt, to dig itself out of a hole with bingo and the tax proceeds it would produce at the Birmingham Race Course, a place where people can already legally wager millions.
I could condone a belief that gambling is wrong and should not be expanded if the person with that belief would be consistent in his actions. The governor is not consistent.
State GOP lauds VP nominee
State Republican leaders are approving the nomination of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as Sen. John McCain’s VP choice.
Sen. Richard Shelby called her “a highly regarded trailblazer.” State Chair Mike Hubbard called her “a strong fiscal conservative, pro-life and a promoter of gun rights.” Rep. Spencer Bachus of Birmingham said she is “an example of fresh and bold thinking by Sen. McCain.”
Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. E-mail him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com