Beech Tree News Network

Next week, October 21-27, is Kentucky Retired Teacher Week. Teachers, active or retired, have a tremendous impact on their communities.

Most of us would agree that teachers are critical to education. Many remember one or two teachers who were important to our education. Teachers “… bear the responsibility of imparting correct knowledge, which is not only academic, but moral as well. There are times when the line between teaching and parenting blurs…” (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-careers-that-help-people.html). My late husband experienced an example of that blurring. He attended a Nashville elementary school for a year as a child. His father was in barber school, and his family only had the essentials. My husband reported that his teacher regularly gave him money for milk, placing it on his desk. He remembered her and spoke of her kindness.

We forget that teachers, active and retired, contribute substantially to the local economy. In 2011-2012, 88 Butler County retired teachers collectively received retirement benefits of $2,615,408 from the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System (Working teachers pay about 10 percent of their salaries into the retirement fund, and currently Kentucky retired teachers do not receive Social Security checks – regardless of whether they paid into the system.). Kentucky retired teachers spent most of their money in our state. Additionally, retired teachers tend to volunteer within their communities. Each year, the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association (KRTA) gathers volunteer data, and using values from the Independent Sector website (www.independentsector.org), KRTA computes the total dollar value for their service. In 2012, KRTA members donated more than 689,593 hours which were valued at $12,398,410.

    As a retired teacher, I am proud of my profession and our work with children. Our country, state and school district are blessed with teachers who want to help students learn. Rightly so, people in our nation expect that to happen. Unlike in Pakistan where the schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head a year ago by gunmen because she had spoken up for the right of girls to be educated.

Teachers – active or retired – impact their communities in many ways. As Retired Teacher Week approaches, I wish to thank our local retired teachers for their commitment to educating children.