Deployed in the Classroom

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

To the Editor:

Re ''Troops Finding New Service as Teachers'' (news article, Dec. 6):

The Troops to Teachers program does indeed deserve to be expanded. In your article, C. Emily Feistritzer, a recognized expert on teacher supply and credentialing, correctly highlights classroom management skills that former military personnel bring, along with their acceptance of diversity.

And while expertise in math and technology is scarce and much needed in the K-12 teacher pool, many former service members also bring from their overseas deployments an understanding of the real-world linguistic and cultural skill requirements of our global age.

In the era of the ''strategic private,'' most soldiers have needed to interact effectively with the local populace and with troops from other nations, drawing on language and culture training. Perhaps our troops who become teachers can help reverse the lack of attention to world languages and cultures in American school curriculums, even as they help our youth compete with their peers around the world in math and technology.

Catherine Ingold
Arlington, Va., Dec. 6, 2009

The writer is director of the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland.

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