Teachers

Phyllis Della Vecchia stood in front of a room full of teachers and did the unthinkable. The Camden County College president sized up the educators and challenged them to stop listening to jargon and start talking about how to teach their students better. "It has to happen that teachers talk to teachers," she said. "Communication can't just be a buzzword. " Fifty or so men and women from 16 school districts had gathered at the college to help begin the Camden County Academy of Teaching and Learning, and they sat straighter in their seats, nodding as Della Vecchia spoke.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman is attacking teachers again. She claims that teachers, despite being represented by an overall union contract, have to sign individual contracts even though they haven't done so in about a quarter of a century. If you want to see what she had sent to the teachers, go to philly.com and search for "school district 'contract' mailed to teachers. " You can then decide what her real intentions are. Mayer Krain Philadelphia

IWOULD like to congratulate the teachers and students in Conwell Middle School and George Washington Carver High School for Engineering & Science, which was one of 320 schools nationwide to be awarded the prestigious No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon award. However, I would also like to respond to the student from George Washington Carver High School for Engineering & Science who stated (in a different article) that the teachers in his school did not meet the needs of their students.

Bucks County Court Judge Ward F. Clark yesterday ordered striking Morrisville teachers to end their nine-week-old walkout and return to work today. Lynette Reichard, a spokeswoman for the 97-member Morrisville Education Association, said teachers - who defied an earlier order by Clark - would comply with yesterday's injunction. Students are scheduled to return to school tomorrow, Superintendent C. Van Cain said. The injunction leaves only one area school district still on strike - Garnet Valley, Delaware County, where 110 teachers walked off the job Oct. 3. Before yesterday's hearing, Clark admitted he had made an error in issuing the injunction last week without holding a hearing first.

Regina Powell (front), a librarian at the Steel School here, is one of the 50 teachers who will participate in the Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan's Teachers for Africa Program. In announcing the names yesterday, Sullivan said the teachers, who are from all over the country, will go to Africa next month for one academic year to "improve the quality of life among the grass-roots people. " Powell will work in library management at the U.S. International University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Teachers in Gloucester Township voted yesterday to begin a symbolic job action today to protest the Board of Education's decision to eliminate recess for 5,000 elementary school children and replace it with gym classes taught by regular teachers. But teachers' union president Robert Farrell urged teachers to wait until after the board's public meeting Monday before staging any job action, he said. The teachers voted in meetings at individual schools yesterday to rally in front of the schools at 8 a.m. today and tomorrow and walk inside together at 8:15, their contractual starting time, Farrell said.

A new poll that shows most adults blame bad parenting for the poor state of education in this country doesn't diminish the role that teachers must play in improving their schools. The Associated Press-Stanford University poll found that 68 percent of adults placed parents above teachers, school administrators, the government, or teachers' unions as the culprits for what's wrong in American education. Only 35 percent of those surveyed said teachers were primarily to blame for academic failures.

Wissahickon's 260 teachers have voted to ratify a three-year contract that includes pay raises lower than they had sought and several givebacks. The Wissahickon Education Association's general membership voted by secret ballot Monday night at Wissahickon High School. The union will not release the margin of approval, said spokesman Edward Bray. "It's time for healing," he said. Bray noted, however, that members who spoke in favor of ratification were nevertheless unhappy with the terms.

The same Councilman Francis Rafferty who embarrassed the people of Philadelphia by starting a fist fight in Council chambers a few years ago now attempts to malign the teachers of Philadelphia (Letter to the Editor, May 7). The teachers requested and received a well deserved pay increase in a three-year contract. Councilman Rafferty's response to this contract is a scathing commentary intended to undermine the necessary funding for the three-year pact. He says the teachers should "bite the bullet" on a pay increase.

New Jersey Education Commissioner Lucille Davy has upheld charges against three Camden teachers stripped of their right to teach in the district for their alleged role in a phony expense-voucher scam. Davy's six-page ruling means the teachers are immediately dismissed, and could lose their state teaching certificates. Davy agreed with a decision handed down in May by an administrative law judge who found the teachers knowingly participated in a scheme attempting to bilk the district out of $25,000.