By George H. Tsai.
Teaching is a well-respected profession, or at least it should be. But many of our young people shun the career. Instead, they prefer majors in computer science, business administration, economy, engineering, medicine and law because the remuneration is great in these fields.
The starting salary for a teacher is $28,000 versus $45,000 or more for a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
It seems the unattractive salary is to blame for the failure of colleges to attract more students to take up education for study. So, to reverse the trend, we have to narrow the compensation gap or offer some incentives.
Because of a teachers shortage, a lot of schools nationwide hire teachers without a thorough investigation of their past, giving the few pedophiles among the applicants opportunities to scar the innocent, both physically and psychologically.
Earlier this month, two ugly incidents happened at two Bronx schools. A second-grade teacher at Public School 78 was arrested on charges he molested a 9-year-old boy and fondled another 8-year-old in his classroom in 1998 and this year. The teacher, Milton McFarlane, 38, also is accused of molesting as many as five other boys in the past. He was reported to have told police that he has the virus that causes AIDS.
Another teacher was fired after three boys, ages 14 to 15, were reported to have sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in his class.
And on May 9, an assistant principal at A. Philip Randolph High School in Harlem was accused of looking up a student’s skirt. Before that, a couple of girls charged that Omar Ayed made sexually suggestive comments to them in 1997, when he was a social studies teacher at William C. Bryant High School in Queens.
There are many reports that male and female teachers in other parts of the country have been convicted of statutory rape of their students.
Last September, a 35-year-old woman from New York, who was a suburban Seattle teacher, was sentenced to five years probation after she pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old boy whose child she bore. Before that, she was jailed for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student whose child she bore.
Yes, love knows no boundary, but teachers must live up to the high standards of their profession and avoid misconduct that would injure the public morality. Teachers must set examples of high morality for their students.
School is an institution where students are supposed to get knowledge, not harm, from their teachers. It’s sad that our schools have recruited some teachers of loose morals.
It is beyond our comprehension that three Bronx boys would engage in a sexual attack on a girl classmate in broad daylight. I think parents, society and educators should be responsible for this terrible incident. We must stress education on moral values, both at home and school, before it is too late.
To prevent sexual attacks at school, we must toughen our screening process in the hiring of teachers. And, the entertainment industry should take serious measures to prevent youngsters from getting access to sexually seductive materials.
Magazines catering to adults are available at newsstands across the nation, especially in New York City. There are no specific rules restricting underage individuals from getting them. Like a bartender who will be fined if he sells hard liquor to a minor, a salesperson at a newsstand should receive similar penalty if found selling porn magazines to a minor.
In the meantime, we hope the porn industry will find some ways to make it harder for minors to get access.
According to a recent report by Yahoo! magazine, “at no time in American history has pornography been so widely available and easily accessible to the general public. It’s now possible for anyone from nine to 90 to watch full-color, full-motion pictures of every kind of sexual act imaginable.”
You don’t have to be a club member and 18 years of age to get a glimpse of the sizzling sex scenes online through free preview.
Cyberspace is flooded with Web sites (maybe thousands) offering pornographic shows. Online porn is one of the most profitable areas of e-commerce.
Now personal computers are about as popular — and ubiquitous — as television sets.
It is ultimately up to us adults — parents, educators, merchants — to protect our children.
