Friendly Fire ... is this like 'Firing Line'

I am a 6th year high school English teacher in the San Fernando Valley, and I don't make close to the "average" $63,000 you mentioned in your article. In fact, most of my colleagues are right there with me. Those who make over $63,000 have been teaching for over 20 years. Many make much less because the turnover rate in teaching is horrendous. Do not be deceived into thinking they stay for the medical benefits. Of the ones who are higher on the payroll scale, have you checked to see how many of them are National Board Certified Teachers? Certification is a timely and costly process that costs $2500, a sum many of us cannot afford.

Now let me clarify a few things on the reality of the classroom situation and teaching today. I teach 9th and 10th grade English to the next generation of newspaper writers such as you. 9th grade English classes are capped with an enrollment of 20; however I have 35 10th graders as there is no cap on that grade. My room size makes it difficult to move up and down the aisles to make certrain the students are "on task." A great many high school students today don't belong in the classrooms they are in. Why have they been passed from grade to grade without consideration as to their qualifications? I was told that "we don't want to warehouse the students, so let's jsut pass them along." So what happens to them? They are so frustrated that they don't have a clue as to what's going on; they "act out" in class. I could continue, but I'm getting frothing at the mouth. Excuse me while I go to the restroom and wash my hands and face in cold water because there is no hot water in any restroom in my school.

Rochelle Krugler