Monday letters: When will we appreciate the value of teachers?

Remember that birthday party you had for all the children? Remember how you couldn’t wait until it was over and the parents picked up their children? That is how a teacher has it every single day. Being a teacher is like being a parent; it is one of the most important jobs there is. You help form future people. I find it amazing and ridiculous that professional athletes get paid millions of dollars for playing a game, yet the people who really count in life — teachers, policemen, firemen, paramedics — have to fight for every penny they get. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right and the politicians who argue about the worth of teachers get paid more for, let’s face it, hardly working.

Connie Orland, Plainfield

New police ‘training’ questionable

Police Supt. Eddie Johnson and the entire management of the Chicago Police Department has failed to stand up for honest, hardworking and dedicated officers. By not admitting the department’s problems, not calling out the malefactors, the leadership of CPD discourages honest officers from standing up by example against the dishonorable. Johnson and his team don’t seem to believe that CPD has a problem. They think it’s the rest of us who have a problem — and that we are the cause of the officers’ problems.

The recent created officer “training program” on how to calm and resolve conflict is a dead giveaway. What organization begins a training program like that before the management has been trained, set objectives for change and growth, and provided measurement tools and a schedule for review? How much can officers learn in two days? Obviously, this training was thrown together merely to deflect outrage in the community; it is not as a serious vehicle for improvement.

Muriel Balla, Hyde Park