Pandora’s Box has been opened. A survey among Auburn teachers was taken a month ago. The teachers surveyed are in the union and are roughly a third of the teaching population in Auburn. If the survey had been given to all teachers, I believe the numbers would have shown the same results. As it was, 61 percent said there are big problems with administration.

Morale, respect and trust are at an all-time low. Teachers have had to accept educational policies that don’t work in the classroom. And they won’t work outside the classroom, either, when Auburn parents try to make sense of the learning process and evaluations for their children.

Teachers are neither valued nor validated by the people who should have their backs. In our experience, no one in administration listens.

When asked for proof of the survey results, a few brave souls spoke to the School Committee and reaffirmed that the dissatisfaction runs deep. They gave examples of how frustrating it is to comply with a vision that is unrealistic, and how demoralizing it is to be dismissed as being negative when trying to have simple discussions about the realities in their classrooms.

Teachers believe in positive change. Teachers thrive on it. But change combined with a lack of understanding about the daily realities of being in a classroom invites chaos.

School Committee Chairman Tom Kendall asserted that teachers have wrong information, that we teachers don’t “get it.”

What we do “get” is that there is a failure to communicate.

Laurie Maloney, Lewiston