Argument would be more believable if sacrifices were made

Our teachers are genius when it comes to picking battles when they have no skin in the game [“Why we boycotted the MAP test,” Opinion, Jan. 18]. When they go on strike for the “good of the kids,” they never put their paychecks at risk — they always get them back when the contract is settled.

If they were serious about their stance on the MAP test, then they would have the zero scores for their class factored into their teacher ratings and suffer the consequences for the greater good.

I like most of our teachers and much of what they stand for, it’s just that their arguments would have a lot more credence if they had something at stake.

--Ken Boyer, Redmond

Garfield teacher convinces with op-ed

I was glad to see the op-ed piece by Jesse Hagopian on your Opinion page Jan. 18 for several reasons:

One, it was a clear and convincing argument in favor of the boycott by a Garfield High School teacher;

Two, Hagopian, who has taught in Seattle Public Schools since 2006 and serves as the Black Student Union’s faculty adviser, was last year’s recipient of the Abe Keller Peace Education Award and was one of our panelists on our “Want Peace? Teach Peace” panel at our annual meeting last year; and

Three, he talks about the value of young people identifying a problem and writing a letter to the editor about it, which is something Abe Keller, a lifelong peace and justice activist, did regularly.

Thank you for publishing this piece.

--Jerome Chroman, president, Abe Keller Peace Education Fund, Seattle