They Think Anyone Can Do My Job

[omorka]

Arrgh

Arrgh again

Requiring fully qualified teachers was one of the few *good* things about Sinister Buttock . . .

(apologies - both links require a login)

Comments

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

I don't know...the NYT article was fairly persuasive(neither have nor want a KHOU login). Having a teacher is better than not, and a degree doesn't necessarily equal qualification.

Now a degree in *education*, maybe...

[omorka.livejournal.com]

The problem is that they're weakening the law in ways that permit a person to teach if they merely have a degree - in anything. No pedagogical knowledge required, no training in the specific field (I'd be allowed to teach biology or history if I could pass a single state-mandated standardized test in them, for example). Not even a semester of student teaching. Just a bachelor's degree and a single standardized test.

I'm not the least bit sure that I agree that an incompetent teacher is better than no teacher at all. I'm quite sure a block of plywood would have been preferable to my fourth-grade teacher, for example; at least, I and one other intelligent girl would have been less damaged by the experience. At any rate, weakening the qualifications for the profession isn't going to attract people who are highly committed to education to the profession. I don't even think it's likely to solve the teacher shortage, even in the short run.

Of course a degree doesn't equal qualification. However, weakening that aspect of NCLB opens the way for states to allow people to teach with fewer qualifications (which is what the KHOU article was about). These people think anyone can walk in off the street and do my job as well as I can, or better. Imagine if they said anyone who earned a bachelor's degree, in anything, could be an engineer . . . that having the specialized training in engineering meant nothing.

S'possible

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

At any rate, weakening the qualifications for the profession isn't going to attract people who are highly committed to education to the profession.

It might give me a chance to teach without taking time out from supporting the family to go back to school for two years. Not sure if that would be a good thing to do to our nation's schools, but it would serve them right if the schools were suddenly filled with passionate teachers who taught the kids only one thing: to demand a better education!

Re: S'possible

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . here, if you could rearrange your work hours slightly, you could get the coursework done for certification all as evening classes and not miss work. Of course, you'd be putting in 60+ hour weeks between school and work, and only see your family on Sundays, but I know people who have done it.

I have no idea how the Cali postbac certification program works, though.

Re: S'possible

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

While I can't imagine the terror and suffering that would come of this, I do have an odd fascination with the idea of becoming a high school teacher.

Re: S'possible

[omorka.livejournal.com]

The awful thing is, we're precisely the people the system desperately needs to go back and teach. The profession seems to be designed to attract [elitism]second-rate minds[/elitism] almost exclusively. This causes huge problems.

One of the things I realized when I was just starting this line of work was that it wasn't always so. When women were restriced to a narrow range of jobs, teaching was one of the higher-prestige and higher-pay ones we were permitted, so the profession was filled with bright, tough women who weren't content to stay home. There were a handful of fly-by-nights who had failed to get their MRS degree in college and who left the profession, grateful, when they got married, and some bitter women who tuaght only because they needed the money, but for the most part the profession attracted women who were pretty competent and a few men who were eccentric enough to enter a "feminine" profession, mostly in high school science.

I haven't experienced too much terror yet (only one fight and one almost-fight in my room, no weapons) - but yes, the suffering part rather sucks.

Re: S'possible

[memeslayer.livejournal.com]

I meant terror and suffering for the students, not me!

Re: S'possible

[omorka.livejournal.com]

*LOL* Trust me - the worst you could do is better than what some of these kids are getting on a regular basis . . .