By Bob McManus
“Mrs. Barnes is more a gauzy image than a firm memory. She taught fifth grade at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in upstate Binghamton a very long time ago — and while the details have faded, the sense of warm support and gently demanding classroom encouragement endures.
As do the results.
Mrs. Barnes, you see, was the very model of the teacher who made a positive difference, the iconic figure so central to every state budget-cycle argument that runs, teachers, by golly, you just can’t pay ’em enough.”