Can Do Without IRMA

Editor, The News: When a headline in the Sunday, Oct. 31, edition of the Ann Arbor News states "IRMA is a Popular Girl for Ann Arbor Teachers," is that a consensus gathered from teachers or only from the director of IRMA whose annual salary, according to the Ann Arbor News, is $16,500? Of of the 1,000 calls reportedly received by IRMA, how many have been answered to the satisfaction of the teachers? I have had four contacts with IRMA requesting information and materials for my classes in mass media. The results of these four contacts have been no information, no materials, and a ■waste of my time. Does this mean that IRMA is really operating at 25 per cent efficiency? Since my last deluded hope of obtaining any assistance ... .1 have learned; that the Ann Arbor Public Library prints an annual Program Planner's Guide which lists all the speakers and resource; personnel in a variety of fields, which: are available within the community.; Why do we need IRMA to duplícate this, service: (Incidentally, the husband of the director of IRMA is listed in the Guide as a speaker in an area of mass media, televisión, a fact about which IRMA seems totally unaware.) , Furthermore, the Public Library has now and always has had diverse bibliographies available to all the citizens of Ann Arbor and will if the need arises prepare new ones. The reference librarians are skilled at finding the answers to such questions as "the name ot a hyperactive animal." As for the handbook for teachers I which has been prepared by IRMA, most of the information about free materials for innovative classroom use can be found in a pocket book published annually by Bantam Book entitled 1001 ble Things You Can Get Free by Mort Weisinger - cost: 75 cents. Why do we ■ need IRMA to duplícate previously 1 pared material? IRMA's proffered "diagnostic services" too are questionable. What can IRMA diagnose when she does not know I the students, the subject matter, the I teachers, or the school system? (When the bell rings in school, teachers cannot I chat on the telephone with IRMA; we go to class.) Perhaps IRMA can lócate rocking chairs and canóes for those teachers whose own fingers cannot "do the walking through the yellow pages" (Or is IRMA's success predicated on her access to public money, and the teacher's lack of it?), but I find the entire operation totally wasteful of the taxpayers' money. May I suggest, therefore, that the cost of IRMA be pro-rated among the Ann Arbor teachers, and that in order to do something useful with this money, each teacher be allowed to opt for IRMA or to take his share of the allocated funds for teaching materials and field trips for his students. (Although we are halfway through the semester, I still have no newspapers, magazines, video-tapes, commercial films, or current books for my Mass Media students, who have requested a field trip for which there are no funds available.) IRMA can happily ensconce herself on her rocking chair in her office which "has a colorful decor," (Do visit your "colorful" schools, fellow taxpayers!) "including a large fish tank and a gerbil hanging from a cage on the wall," (No money for laboratory animáls for students can be found.) and chat on the telephone, if she so desires, but please not at the taxpayers expense, and certainly not at the expense of the school population of this community.