Nix on NY Times Letter--Darn!

Well, I'm disappointed that the NY Times did not accept my excellent letter for publication (I forwarded you a copy last Friday: see Bush Dairies, 5/6. But I imagine with all your travels you might not yet have had the time to read it.) Today's edition published four reactions to Thomas L. Friedman's op-ed piece about education, and I was disappointed because none of them raised the same issue as my letter--that the expectation that teachers should make learning "exciting" and "inspiring" puts an unfair burden on those who are, well, neither, terribly, but rather good-hearted, workaday teachers doing a very hard job in sometimes the worst of circumstances. My other point--perhaps too well disguised in personal narrative--was that effective teaching can take other routes than inspiration and excitement. Discipline, it is often forgotten, is also an essential tool, but it may not be as much fun. Without that discipline, however, I'm sure I would not know my French irregular verbs as well as I do today!