Stop crying for teachers

[rmcrobertson]

It had no more to do with your post than yours did with anything I've written.

However--and despite the many excellent people I've met with degrees in education--I stand behind my basic claim that one of the basic problems with contemporary education is the proliferation of education departments.

Far too often--not always or even close, but far too often--education departments offer fourth-rate ideas and pseudo-science. Worse, they make it possible for people to become teachers and administrators without really knowing a subject. And worsest, they all too often--not always, or even close, but too often contribute far too much to the ongoing commodification of education and knowledge.

 

[hardheadjarhead]

It had no more to do with your post than yours did with anything I've written.

Sorry. I misunderstood then. I saw you use the words "snotty and arrogant" from my post and thought you were directing that specifically to me.

Far too often--not always or even close, but far too often--education departments offer fourth-rate ideas and pseudo-science. Worse, they make it possible for people to become teachers and administrators without really knowing a subject.

You have a point.

My wife would agree with you, and she has a Master's in Education. She took the classes after teaching for a dozen years. Some of her professors had never taught in the public schools. They were long on theory, short on experience. Linda pointed out to me that much of what they taught was invalid in a class room setting.

One of my son's high school teachers taught Education classes for five years before actually getting into the public schools. She was totally unprepared her first year in the trenches. She didn't relate to the kids well, didn't know the subject she taught (seemed to think the Civil War started in 1812...my son corrected her), and was extremely disorganized. A very sweet woman, aside from all that.


Regards,

Steve

 

[MartialArtist68]

So many teachers are thrust out into the classroom (to teach) with poor training. My father, who is a professor at Indiana University, has heard the phrase "pay your fee, get your B" to describe the education at IU in some departments (he has also been told "publish or perish", but that's a separate matter), especially teaching. I don't mean to discredit IU students and alumni with degrees, by the way.

Cheers,
pk

 

[Nightingale]

a good education program can really help a teacher. The program I went through at Loyola Marymount was excellent. There were classes on classroom management, methods, cultural awareness, everything, and, aside from two or three on history and educational theory, most of them were hands on, practical, and very useful.

The school even sent out a professor to observe my teaching and give me suggestions for an entire school year. He came out four times a semester.

The many of my professors were classroom teachers during the day, or if they were full time professors, they'd all taught kids at one point or another. every single one of them had practical, classroom experience, and knew exactly what we, as new teachers were going through. I felt that my program at LMU did an awesome job of preparing me for life in the classroom.

However, many new teachers don't have the same preparation and experience that I did (*cough* National University graduates, among others *cough*). They attend "credential mills" whose goal is to get the teacher credentialled ASAP, as opposed to actually teaching them anything practical.

If you find a really good education program, what you learn there is extremely valuable. If you choose a bad program just to finish faster, you're wasting your time and your money.