[livius]

I know many people who would be happy to go into teaching - if they didn't have to go back to college and get an ed degree, which is now required in many states. And these are people who already have advanced degrees in subject areas, particularly math and the sciences. The ed bureaucracy keeps a lot of good people out of teaching, and then burns them out if they somehow manage to get in.

[summer]

And, if they want to teach those kids no one else can reach - good luck, God bless, and who knows, if it works, great. If it doesn't, the person will leave that teahcing job soon enough, for it is not an easy task.

[buffyt]

At the local community college we actually have people from the field teaching classes. People who have worked in the computer field, network administrators, people who have worked at the local chemical plants as engineers, etc. It is hard for them for their first year but that is a difficult time for ALL new teachers.

[macrahanish #1]

My wife wanted to get out of the rat race and become a teacher. She has an MBA, is a CPA, and has 15 years of experience. She supervises a staff of about 30 people.
To become a teacher, she would have had to go to college full-time for two years. She told them no thanks.
The school hired someone fresh out of college, who has absolutely no practical experience. However, he is a teacher DONCHA know.

[P.O.E.]

The ed bureaucracy keeps a lot of good people out of teaching,

After working in business for over 22 years, with a BS and an MBA, and plenty of math classes, the local teacher's college STILL wanted me to take 8 college-level math classes in order to teach Math in High School, plus the "teacher ed" classes.

I suspect they really just wanted my tuition money.

[Clara Lou]

if they didn't have to go back to college and get an ed degree,

From the article: “Highly qualified” means holding at least a bachelor’s degree, and obtaining full state certification or passing a state teacher licensing exam.
To my knowledge, people don't get "ed degrees" anymore-- not at the bachelor-level. A person majors in a particular area and the education courses are on the side. That's how I did it. That's how it is in Texas.

[sirchtruth]

The ed bureaucracy keeps a lot of good people out of teaching, and then burns them out if they somehow manage to get in.

So what's you're saying is there should be NO standard to become a teacher and anybody off the street should be able to do it? Afterall, there's plenty Good People.

Has anybody ever heard of Standards?

[Triple Word Score]

The college of education is an expensive, worthless gauntlet they want any prospective teacher to have to run. They might as well literally make them run between lines of educators armed with switches. It would be just as meaningful to the ends of education.

My husband taught 18 and 19 year olds how to run sophisticated satellite communications equipment; he had to teach them math, reading, writing, and technical skills specific to that equipment and to their careers in the military in general. He dealt with immaturity and discipline problems. For 24 years he served his country and took college classes when he could.

He wants to teach high school. There is a shortage of competent teachers who can keep control of a classroom. Yet a simple B.A. or B.S. degree in the subject he'll be teaching isn't enough. He's got over 200 hours of college credit and he's still a year and about a dozen liberal education courses away from the classroom. It's an infuriating waste of his precious time.

A talented TEACHER can teach a difficult subject effectively even if he or she is only learning the material a chapter ahead of his or her students. I know--I've seen it done. The ability to teach has nothing to do with a piece of paper, no matter how expensive that piece of paper may be.

What part of vouchers being for a CHOICE do these people not understand? If they want every private school to be a simple echo of the failed public school system, with the same failed standards and methods, what choice really exists?

[jammer]

I know many people who would be happy to go into teaching - if they didn't have to go back to college and get an ed degree, which is now required in many states.

Exactly. The entire credentialing process creates a cartel (like in law, medicine, etc.) under the guise of public safety or other nebulous concepts.

It arises from the false assumption that the value of any government run or regulated program is proportional to "input", i.e., money spent, rather than "output", in this case educated children. If credentialing maintained minimum standards, that would be fine. But to reward someone with the ability to yawn through Piaget's studies or other nonsense and place him or her over someone who actually works in a field is to prostitute the entire profession.

[pfflier]

Your assessment is right on the mark. In Arizona, 3,000 hours of experience in a career field qualifies an individual for a Vocational Teaching Certificate.

In my case, I was an unemployed aerospace/electronics engineer looking for part time work until an engineering job opened up, I got my cert 12 years ago, and haven't stopped teaching since.

Most of the people I work with are certified by taking general ED courses. They are not required to know anything about their course content. My math, science and communications skills, earned through experience in the USAF and Aerospace far exceeds theirs. Their students come to me for advice and help because their teachers can't do the math.

Because of the NEA agenda and legislative controls however, I cannot teach their classes. I am not qualified to teach regular math because I don't have a BS ED.

[John123]

I know many people who would be happy to go into teaching - if they didn't have to go back to college and get an ed degree, which is now required in many states. And these are people who already have advanced degrees in subject areas, particularly math and the sciences. The ed bureaucracy keeps a lot of good people out of teaching

Absolutely, I have an MBA and I am not qualified to teach children. This is just ridiculous since I earned very good grades.

I believe President Bush said the reason we have a large demand for qualified teachers is because the teacher union created an artificial demand. They made candidates jump through a lot of hoops to be qualified to teach. Extra classes, seminars and whatever else.

[flying Elvis]

Very true. I have an MA in History and am qualified to teach history on the college level but not high school? Go figure?