Teachers motivated by compassion for students

The editorial “Teachers should end assessment-test boycott” [Opinion, Jan. 30] makes many assumptions about the Garfield teachers: that the teachers have poor political timing because of the upcoming levies, that the protest is really about upcoming labor negotiations, that the teachers don’t want the kids assessed at all.

I don’t work in Seattle, but I am a teacher, and I assure you, the only reason so many teachers agreed to the boycott was to help the kids. No politics, no union bullying, no teacher laziness — just compassion for the kids.

The teachers may be in error and the test may be fine, but don’t attribute shadowy, self-interested motivations to something that is clearly inspired by love.

--Paul Christiansen, Seattle