Teachers are heroes

November 12-18 is Retired Teachers’ Week. I would like to praise the heroes in our schools.

Too many people are looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock musicians, athletes and models aren’t heroes; they’re celebrities. Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn’t make the news. There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes, child abuse and crime in today’s America. Education didn’t create these problems but deals with them every day.

Last year the average schoolteacher spent $475 of his/her own money for student necessities and classroom...