This is in response to the three readers who wrote regarding K.C. Tanner's letter about teachers.

First, I'd like to dispel the myth that teachers work only six hours per day and only 180 days per year. I have taught second grade for 14 years at a school that is one block from my Willow Glen home. Each day, I arrive at my school at 6:45 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m., which equals 11 hours 15 minutes per day. Even if you subtract out a half-hour duty-free lunch, you still have a total of 10 hours 45 minutes, or 1,935 hours per school year. This does not include the time spent every evening grading student work, contacting parents, and attending district meetings. It does not include the time spent at school each weekend planning and preparing lessons and activities.

Every teacher I know comes into school at least one week before the official start day in order to set up their classroom, and stays at least one week after school closes to clean up, reorganize, and close their classroom. I guess we teachers "volunteer" this "free time" in order to "get the job done."

Teachers also spend "free time" attending professional development seminars and workshops to enhance their skills and to keep abreast of the latest teaching methodologies.

Teaching is one of the few professions where one also spends hundreds of dollars out of pocket each year to purchase materials for one's class. I, currently, receive a total school instructional budget of $180 per year for 20 students. If not for our extremely generous PTA, most of our teacher budgets would run out by November.

Teachers, as in the private sector, also have a formal evaluation procedure "to ensure that they are meeting the goals set for them in performing their jobs."

I would invite any of the disbelievers to visit my classroom and spend a day shadowing me (from the time I leave my house to the time I leave my school) to decide if teachers really earn their pay, which is not the $2 per child per hour as suggested by K.C. Tanner, nor the $64 per hour as suggested by the three writers.

I love my students and my profession, but have no affection for those who suggest that teachers have short hours or an easy job.

Janice P. Allen

Willow Glen Elementary School

Settle Avenue

In the "SpeakOut" section of the Feb. 4 issue we ran a letter by K.C. Tanner that inadvertently omitted two words from one of her sentences. The sentence should have read, "When a teacher is paid a yearly salary of $60,000 plus $9,600 for health benefits, and she instructs 32 children for six hours a day for 181 schools days, she earns a measly $2 per child per hour."