Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘The Case Against Homework Comes Alive in Two Books’
Sara Berman’s “The Case Against Homework Comes Alive in Two Books” [November 28, 2006] says what needs to be heard: “Saddling children with homework does one thing: It kills the love of learning.” She could have added: It gives the teacher an excuse to waste half a teaching period going from desk to desk to certify or to grade the homework if he/she chooses to do so.
I know whereof I speak. I spent 25 years in the New York City secondary school system, as a history and language teacher. I always gave the minimum of homework, bearing in mind as I did my own adolescent school days; particularly the math homework, a subject I hated and loathe to this day.
JEROME STARR, Ph.D.
New York City School System
Retired
New York, N. Y.
‘University Presidents See Their Compensation Skyrocket’
My opinion about more than 100 college presidents making more than half-a-million dollars a year is that the professors who do the teaching in their schools ought to be paid even more than those presidents [New York, University Presidents See Their Compensation Skyrocket,” November 20, 2006].
After all, it is teachers who do the essential job of all schools: directly educating the students.
The way I see it, the role of college presidents and other school administrators is basically that of “support personnel” — people whose job it is to help teachers do their jobs.
Similar to school secretaries and custodians, administrators do an important job — but one that is only “necessary,” but not “sufficient.”‘
For an analogous example, look at the world of professional sports. Coaches and managers usually are not paid as much as the players are — and classrooms are the teachers’ fields and courts.
RICHARD SIEGELMAN
Plainview, N.Y.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
