The attention that the media and Parliament have given to Ninu Cremona School (Gozo) would make one think we were harbouring public enemies. Forget embezzling VAT money and corrupt judges; taking sick leave when not sick, taking a coffee or cigarette break outside school during a free lesson are the crimes that cannot be tolerated.

And now lies are being spread of a tyrannical head forcing us to attend meetings causing a sudden rush for medication, making our students wonder why their teachers suddenly have that 'night-of-the-living-dead' look. Has Ninu Cremona school become a smokescreen for something else? Strange how we've been hit with lies, including being blamed for incidents in another school.

I have to admit that things go on there of which the public is unaware, and I feel it's my duty to invite the media to investigate: come and see how the teachers supported and helped a child fulfil his dying mother's wish; come and see teachers and students working together in charity and school fundraisers; come and see teachers during their free lessons meeting parents and guidance teachers to discuss the needs of a child with special needs; come and see the teachers who leave a sick child home and still come to work, or the teachers that face a class of children during outbreaks of meningitis and swine flu!

Investigate why teachers still in pain and on crutches return to work. What about parents' day, which a certain journalist described as a leave-day, wasted. We teachers look at it as an investment in every child's future and, believe me, parents' day is no piece of cake for most teachers.

I had to sit for over four hours straight, skipping a break, trying to put nature's call on hold for as long as possible to avoid facing grumbling parents who think teachers are automatons without biological needs.

Investigate teachers who attend in-service courses voluntarily, or those going to university after work to further their studies and returning to Gozo late at night.

In my 16 years at Ninu Cremona, I do not know of any student transferring to any other school. Yet we've had students transfer from the seminary to ours, including the children of professionals. So I think that despite our problems and failures, which every school has, we have our good - a good which is not advertised.

We've had our fair share of students who went on to having successful careers, a few of my ex-students are now back as teachers. What a reward to see a student leave the school a child and return a grown-up.

So let's not crucify the teaching profession - yes, we are professionals. Make it a career not worth striving for and we'll return to the early 1990s. Remember when parents were protesting outside schools because their children were without a teacher for months, or with a teacher that had practically no qualifications?

We teachers are the men and women without faces. See Mel Gibson's Man without a Face and you'll know what I mean.