I fully agree with the Nov. 15 article, “Education board: Letter grades won’t work.” Teachers are required to do a mountain of work that does not even touch their true calling — to teach. This busy work takes away quality time they could have devoted to their students. I know a certain amount of record keeping, etc., is necessary, but it is easy to go to the extreme in either direction.

It is crucial to remember that our teachers are not the only ones responsible for the success of our students. If a child is sent to school hungry, abused or neglected, that child’s ability to learn is impaired before the school day even begins. Who should be held accountable for those students failing to learn? Certainly not the teachers.

How frustrated I would be if I were a teacher and my performance was graded on the damage others inflicted on my students before they even entered my classroom. Why don’t we look at some root causes of the problems with our education system and not place the sole responsibility on teachers? There are better ways to reward good teachers and weed out poor teachers, and I do not think it would take rocket science to figure them out.

Nancy Brazell

West Columbia