New Clothes Won’t Redress Old Schools

Re “Dress the Part, Teachers,” editorial, May 5: I request that The Times visit my high school in South Gate and see our deplorable working conditions. We have a school built for 1,500 that holds 4,600 day students and an equal number of adult students every working 24-hour period of the calendar year. Our plant is a mess. It’s old, it’s dirty. The floors are filthy. The desks are broken, with gum stuck under every one. The classrooms are used by day students and then night students.

Why should I wear a tie and $100 slacks when the items I wear get soiled? Forty of our seniors were accepted at UCLA. Obviously we are teaching something, even under adverse conditions. So come visit my classroom. I offer you an open invitation--any time.

Richard Farber

Teacher, South Gate

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When I was in high school I knew a teacher who enjoyed dressing in comfortable clothes, and it made the students happy because they felt they could relate to the teacher. The T-shirt and jeans my teacher wore made it seem like there was no distinction between the students and that particular teacher, but this made me uncomfortable. I believe that teaching is an important career and one must take it seriously. Much like in a job interview, the way teachers choose to dress in the classroom shows a lot about the way they are and the way they teach.

It’s sad to know that schools like Mount Vernon Middle School have teachers worrying about the clothes they are going to wear instead of concentrating on how to make their students learn. School is supposed to be for education and not a fashion statement.

Suzana Aparicio

Sylmar