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McCain Calls for Lower Teacher Standards
At a speech to the Urban League John McCain shocked many hoping for education reform by calling teacher training to rigorous and insisting that in his administration anybody who wants to teach will have a job waiting for them.
“You can be a Nobel Laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today because they don’t have all the proper credits in educational theory or methodology,” McCain told his audience who sat so intent on his message that the remained enraptured and silent.
This is an injustice that needs to stop. If those 10 or so education classes are stopping our Nobel Laureates from moving into the classroom, we need to make those classes easier. It is well known that in most universities a huge number of students begin as education majors before the rigorous class work eventually weeds out those who can’t hack it who settle in those majors that lead to careers that pay a living wage like medicine, business, or the sciences. Surely, teaching credentials shouldn’t be this hard to come by.
We all want the best teachers for our kids and for that reason we must make it easier to go into teaching. If Nobel Laureates can’t hack a year of taking education classes what hope do the rest of us have? Let’s start making this certification easier so we can get more Nobel Laureates and other learned people in front of our kids.
Comments (4)
A man who brags about finishing 5th bottom in a class of 899 doesn't respect education. Either did George W. Bush who bragged about being a C-Student, and had a running joke where he'd point the PhD's with him on stage and say "He's a PhD, and I'm a C-Student, but I'm President".
The elite/power wants to keep America stupid, because then they're easier to control.
August 2, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Furthermore once out of school yourself many don't want to invest in public education because you are just training your competition, or your children's competition, and if you can afford to send your kids to private schools, you're giving them a huge advantage over all of those suckers stuck in the ridiculously broken public school system.
It's probably a poor political issue to run on as you're probably pushing away more "likely voters" than you are attracting.
August 2, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also, if I were a Nobel Lauraete I would expect to get paid more than teachers are.
August 2, 2008 7:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, but has anyone here actually taken an ed course? They are torturously out-of-touch and completely useless when it comes to pratical teaching methods. (At least in NY state.) In NY, you need a master's to teach, plus hundreds of student teaching hours and three certification tests after provisional certification. To be a school librarian, you need 42 credit hours and what is in effect, a double master's in education/library science. There are so many hoops to jump through: THAT'S why so many people drop out. The classwork is highly theoretical and self-serving to the publishing needs of the professors teaching you. You'll spend the majority of your classes talking about education theory: what is education?, and come across completely useless and scholarly topics such as constructivist epistemology and Piaget's theories. Sorry, but I want to learn how to manage a classroom, not what whether or not knowledege exists.
I've been a school media specialist in a private school for going on five years now and I'm not certified. I learned what I needed via on-the-job training from the previous librarian, and I'm praised by faculty and students alike, and yet I'm made to feel inadequate by administration because I don't have a piece of paper saying I'm "certified." I'm working on my certification and it's like pulling teeth. I'm tired of starting every semester with "what is information?" and "post-modernist theories of information management?" I'm sorry, but teacher certification is broken. You can learn all you need to about instructional methods, classroom management, etc., all with student teaching and minimal grad classwork. It's unfortunate that our education system is broken from the top-down: you shouldn't need to pursure a master's degree to train you for a job. Just train me, don't educate me. I'm sorry, but at least in NY, education for teachers has become a money racket serving the Regents board, State Ed Department, and the colleges. I'd like a little reform in this regard.
September 15, 2008 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
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