Public schools teach math and science much better when the teachers DON’T have a degree in education

wordpress ^ | September 17, 2012 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

[grundle]

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog

Public schools teach math and science much better when the teachers DON’T have a degree in education

This is from the Wall St. Journal:

This month 3,700 recent college grads will begin Teach for America’s five-week boot camp, before heading off for two-year stints at the nation’s worst public schools.

Teach for America offers smart young people something even better than money – the chance to avoid the vast education bureaucracy. Participants need only pass academic muster and attend the summer training before entering a classroom. If they took the traditional route into teaching, they would have to endure years of “education” courses to be certified.

The American Federation of Teachers commonly derides Teach for America as a “band-aid.” One of its arguments is that the program only lasts two years, barely enough time, they say, to get a handle on managing a classroom. However, it turns out that two-thirds of its grads stay in the education field, sometimes as teachers, but also as principals or policy makers.

More importantly, it doesn’t matter that they are only in the classroom a short time, at least according to a recent Urban Institute study. Here’s the gist: “On average, high school students taught by TFA corps members performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially in math and science, than peers taught by far more experienced instructors. The TFA teachers’ effect on student achievement in core classroom subjects was nearly three times the effect of teachers with three or more years of experience.

As always, whenever an alternative system of education does a better job of teaching than the traditional method, the teachers’ unions are against it, because they are afraid of competition.

Another interesting fact appears in this article by CBS news:

education majors… enter college with the lowest average SAT

It’s a tragedy that the dumbest college students are the ones who end up becoming teaches. In my opinion, the education major should be abolished.

[stocksthatgoup]

The unions are NOT going to go along with this. Private and charter schools will win!

[Born to Conserve]

Thems can, does.
Thems cain’t, teach.

[JRandomFreeper]

Everything I learned about math (beyond addition/subtraction/etc...) I either learned from my Dad, a classmate, or on my own. A 10th grade 'educator' screwed me up on trig so bad, it took an entire summer to figure it out.

/johnny

[notbuyingit2]

That’s because people who are teachers have EDUCATION degress, not degrees in what they are teaching! This is a really stupid way to train teachers. The emphasis is all wrong. Teachers should have the majority of their training in the subject they are teaching with a just a FEW EDUCATION classes.

[cripplecreek]

Hillsdale college is no longer offering teaching degrees without a 4 year degree in something real.

[ETL]

Teaching Math In 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math In 1990:
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? **Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers.)

Teaching Math In 2005:
Un ranchero vende una carretera de madera para $100. El cuesto de la produccion era $80. Cuantos tortillas se puede comprar?

http://dagnygromer.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/the-evolution-of-teaching-math-1950s-to-today/

[taxcontrol]

And thems that can neither do nor teach become politicians

[JustSayNoToNannies]

Public schools teach math and science much better when the teachers DON’T have a degree in education

Of course. A degree in education says, "I didn't have the brains or skill for a real degree."

I once looked into getting certified to teach. My Ph.D. in physics, bachelor's in math, and several years of teaching in college wouldn't save me from having to pay for classes like "Philosophy of Education" and "History of Education."

[SC DOC]

Education majors are not the brightest.

In fact, they are at the bottom of the degree field.

[notbuyingit2]

Yeah! That’s a start but “Education interests” are really entrenched in the public school system. It will take a lot to change the mindset. A continuing decline in standardized test scores will probably help speed the change - that and parents finally saying they aren’t going to take it anymore.

[Elendur]

Of course. A degree in education says, “I didn’t have the brains or skill for a real degree.”
///
exactly correct. as shown by this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2932550/posts

IQ estimates by college major via SAT scores [average education major has 2-digit IQ]
blogspot.com ^ | March 25, 2009 | The Audacious Epigone

Posted on Monday, September 17, 2012 8:17:59 PM by grundle

IQ estimates by intended college major via SAT scores

Assuming the mean IQ of SAT test-takers included in a report by the College Board to be 103*, the estimated average IQ of students by intended college major follow. The estimates exclude writing results, which were added in 2005 and constitute what is generally considered the least objectively reliable part of the test**. The critical reading and mathematics (previously known as the quantitative section) portions are equally weighted:

Intended major IQ

Interdisciplinary studies 114.0
Physical sciences 111.2
Mathematics and statistics 110.7
English and literature 110.1
...
Education 99.3
Agriculture 99.2
Transportation 98.7
Other 97.8
Family and consumer sciences 97.5
Parks, recreation, leisure and fitness 97.5
Public administration and social services 96.6

[taxcontrol]

My trig teacher started us with fractions and ratios. Spent three weeks on it till we were bored out of our minds. We kept hanging in because he had the day that we were going to start Trig marked on the calender. So we actually started Trig 3 weeks late.

When the day came, he drew a circle and told us that all of trig can be expressed as the ratio between the adjacent, opposite and hypotenuse sides of a triangle. You could hear the whole class go .... “oh wow” as the light bulb came on.

We finished the year 3 weeks ahead of schedule because we “got it” up front. And in my mind, the review of fractions and ratios was WELL worth the effort.

[savagesusie]

Definitely. The education major should be abolished. I took some of their required classes for the education major-—and they are a complete waste of time which made me switch my major—because I couldn’t stand to waste my time when there were so many courses where I could actually “learn” something.

Actually, DOE should be eliminated and all parents should again be the primary educators of their own children—with tutorial type help, from people with the same moral principles so Virtue is once again instilled into children.

No one was more educated than Abe Lincoln who only stepped into a classroom for a couple of months. All children used to go to college by 14 or so-—because they were actually taught knowledge at age 7 through 12-—and most people who left school like Mark Twain by 13 were WAY smarter than college graduates today.

Why? Because the socialist Dewey destroyed “knowledge” with his social sciences and brainwashing/conditioning curricula when he kicked out Classical knowledge and Moral Absolutes (God)——to foster infantilism and dependence and servitude and immorality.

People not in the Prussian system of “forced group think” become independent, strong individuals who can withstand the “group” thought and think independently-—like men used to in the cases of Jefferson and Adams and Hayek. (John Taylor Gatto).

Our children are being conditioned to be dependents-—slaves of the state—which is what John Stuart Mill said would be the result of State run educational systems. He is correct, as the OWS and ACORN thugs prove. We have ignorant zombies coming out of schools now-—who KNOW EVERYTHING, yet know NOTHING—of importance, except how to put a condom on a cucumber and masturbate in groups and with themselves—(and it is “fun”). They reject the wisdom of the ages-—like Hayek, Locke, Milton, Shakespeare, Aquinas, etc, because they are incapable of understanding them.

[beethovenfan]

A degree in ejookayshun is totally worthless.

[353FMG]

I have many friends with engineering degrees, well qualified to teach math and sciences, who were rebuffed by schools when they applied for a teaching position.

[notbuyingit2]

Sounds like you had a great teacher who really understood his subject.

[WKUHilltopper]

“Public schools teach math and science much better when the teachers DON’T have a degree in education”

Of course they don’t...because the “teacher factories” are nothing more than assembly line factories. The end product, their graduates only have to comply with their formulas listed in text books—they’ve never been presented with situations to resolve real world problems. Never had to discover innovations to survive.

Never had to be concern with an outcome from their own decisions. If they’re not successful in their endeavors, some kid flunks out, they go on their merry way. Screw up in the business world, you could sink an entire operation. No pressure, no problems.

You’re only going to get some regurgitated, pre fabbed process from a “teachers’ factory” reinforced by people who have no world experience in anything else themselves.

[cripplecreek]

Hillsdale college has a deal with Spring Arbor college about 25 miles to the north where a student who wants the teaching degree can work on it at the same time they’re getting the required 4 year degree.

[cripplecreek]

Neil Armstrong went into teaching after leaving NASA as it should be.