Thy Neighbor, So, when facts fail your arguments then as a defense you make wild generalizations to support your position? I don't recall any comment on these pages suggesting that "teachers are lazy, overpaid slackers who are only interested in having summers off." But I do take umbrage when a teacher in a public forum asserts that conditions are are so oppressive that teachers have "too little available energy to try and continue to solve the troubles of Anchorage schools - -."  Really?  Fundamentally teaching is not a difficult job. Teachers are well paid, have great benefits with more time off than other working people. That's the nature of the job and so be it. But when you, the teachers union and some teachers make out that teaching is a special calling that only a few can satisfy that is nonsense. The public is not out of touch, especially when the public you mock pays the bills and has to deal with graduating students whom only about 50% are competent in English and math.