To the editor:

If you really knew what goes on in a classroom and how much most teachers care about a student's progress, we wouldn't have asinine articles and comments from people who couldn't handle one day in a classroom. You try teaching with massive budget cuts and lawmakers who make decrees but have no basis for doing so. The state and federal governments spend far more on lawmaking and compliance than they do on making sure our kids have what they need. These people will eventually run all good teachers out of their jobs, because we cannot possibly keep up with their idiotic mandates and standards.

Most of the teachers I know are working as hard as they can to keep up with standards which unfortunately leave students behind. I have students who are extremely intelligent but do poorly on the MAP test. Does this make them less intelligent? No. Does this make me less of a teacher? No. I guarantee that eventually teachers will be replaced with those who couldn't care less, because this job doesn't pay well enough to put up with those who would tell us what we know best. I do this because I want to make a difference, not for the money. I know my students. Does the government? Spend a week doing what I do, lawmakers, and then we shall see if you truly know as much as you think you do.

S. EATON

Dexter, Mo.