Posted on 01/30/2007 5:45:59 AM PST by wintertime
(snip)
1. The practitioners know and can do things the public in general cannot do. They have a specialized body of knowledge.
2. The specialized body of knowledge practitioners have takes an extended period of time to learn.
3. The educators who prepare the practitioners are experts who agree upon the specialized body of knowledge practitioners must have.
4. Admission to a professional training program is highly selective.( snip).
6. Only members of the profession set the standards for licensure and certification.
7. The primary responsibility and loyalty of a professional is to serve the client and not simply the institution or governmental agency in which the practitioner may be employed.
8. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may control the way in which professionals relate to their clients, or the treatments, methods or procedures they use.
9. Neither the public at large nor an employing institution may set the purpose, goals or objectives for the practitioner’s practice with clients.
10. The public at large does not decide how to evaluate professionals.
11. Only members of the profession can determine malpractice and dismiss or disbar practitioners.
12. Professionals determine the cost of their services.
19. Professionals are trained to serve clients with problems. By definition “professionals” do not seek to perform services to clients without problems.
21. Professionals share a code of ethics to which they commit and adhere. They cannot be directed to perform or not perform services for clients which conflict with their professional code.
The case that teaching does not meet any of these twenty one criteria can be readily made.
(Excerpt) Read more at ednews.org ...
You have to admit the whole fact there are unions says volumes about primary teaching.
My mother is/was a teacher, an excellent 1. So good she was "teacher in charge" (like a principal) for her emotionally-disturbed (read: teenage malcontents) school (which was attached to my high school) when in her 40s, and kids - most of them - liked her despite her no-nonsense toughness. She started in regular elementary and middle schools, but wanted to teach high school and ended up mastering in emotionally disturbed.
She ended up going back to teaching (ED) at a middle school. Several years later she still has a "'hood" boy from there call her and visit her for lunch periodically. She's tough but fair and ultimately complimentary and giving.
The truth is, though, that "education" majors aren't needed. "Education" is a boondoggle and Tom Sowell can point it all out to you. Mother was a major in US History, and was excellent in math and English. She had to go through the motions to get a license way back early '60s but it wasn't full-up "education college". And somehow not only did she end up teaching History, but also English and math because she was PROFICIENT. She didn't prove it with silly nice-nice courses in "education".
I agree that some things are needed to do well in basic teaching, such as handling communication, especially public speaking. But surely all these things can be handled as a minor in undergrad college.
It scares me what especially high-school teachers actually know about their respective subjects, if they only went to "education college" for 4 wasted years.
Many good teachers? Of course. But again, "education" education isn't really needed. In fact, it can waste time from what the person actually needs to know, in order to impart! Why waste time on "education" when you SHOULD be learning all you can about history in order to really be qualified to TEACH it?
Don't marry a teacher. At least a good one. You might have to open your eyes to the reality of education and you might not like that.
Autistic. He was hitting puberty and when he saw a cute girl he would get aroused in class. When I quit teaching (to be a stay at home mom) he was starting to hit his aide he had for all his years in school. She was becomng afraid of him, yet he was in school when it was known that he was becoming more and more physical and aggressive. Ain't mainstreaming great?!?!
I actually resent this entire thread. My father was a high school teacher (govt and history) for over 30 years. The majority of the school had to pass my father to graduate high school. He was very very tough. But very, very fair. I know, I had to have him for a class.
He worked from 7am to 4pm, then after dinner he graded papers until 10 or 11pm 3 or 4 nights a week. He taught drivers ed in the summer, and was a basketball and volleyball referee. He made very little money-class is only 9 mos. a year, and teachers only get paid for 9 mos. (contrary to urban myth-teachers do not get paid year round. You can have your salary split into 12 mos. if you wish-but it's the same amount) He had to deal with students problems-both mental and physical. He had to deal with parents of kids who were inept and had no idea what they were doing (ie. mainstreaming kids who had no business being mainstreamed) or dealing with the parents of kids who where failing and those parents just could not understand why- and it must be my Dads fault. They could never get that a lot of their kids were dumb. I should know, I went to school with them.
We had a classmate die one year, who dealt with the kids and their loss? Teachers, of course. They have the hardest job. There are bad teachers out there. There are bad doctors, lawyers, judges, cops, etc.... But, I believe there are more good teachers than bad, and I resent people dumping on teachers without ever knowing one, or knowing what one does.
i then asked what happens if he 'two-fers' and she said he got sent to the office. How'd you like to keep count of that in a class of thirty six.
"The truth is, though, that "education" majors aren't needed. "Education" is a boondoggle and Tom Sowell can point it all out to you"
Agreed.
The trouble is...how to better identify teaching "talent". How to better train them and prepare them for the real world of standing in front of a classroom.
"She had to go through the motions to get a license way back early '60s but it wasn't full-up "education college"."
Yes...hubby referred to it as "jumping through hoops"
"But surely all these things can be handled as a minor in undergrad college. "
yes they can.
"Why waste time on "education" when you SHOULD be learning all you can about history in order to really be qualified to TEACH it?"
Well that is the quandary isn't it?
There are plenty of "experts" in history with great knowledge but don't have a clue as to how to relate to kids - how to speak to them - how to motivate them - and how to keep them in line.
And then there are those who are fantastic with kids - but don't have the knowledge base - or they were indoctrinated at the university and don't know enough to know their curriculum is crap.
I'm aware that there are a lot of bad apples out there. To answer your question, my sister absolutely loathes many of her colleagues, because she doesn't think they care about the kids at all, which is rather ironic as many of them come from fairly similar backgrounds as the kids. However, we shouldn't rip on all teachers, because some are great. Moreso, we should not rip on the entire profession. I'm calling it a profession because it should be one. It's an extremely important job, and that's why we need to fix the system rather than write it off. School vouchers, union busting, merit-based pay, and raising certification standards are all good ideas. To some degree, we can't even fault the bad teachers when we make it so easy for them.
There is truth to this and I am a teacher. Especially at the elementary level. There is little depth, but then again, may be it isn't necesasry at that level.
I had to do a transfer to attain a course for my credential in order to finsih on time. I left a reputable school and went to a school called Cal State Dominguez in Los Angeles, a rough part of town.
I was shocked at the low level of performance from my classmates there. Some of them talked and wrote barely at the high school level let alone at graduate school level. In order to staff the inner city schools they must draw from those communities, and their cultural background was so different from my middle class roots. I would be horrified to have some of them teaching my kids.
"Don't marry a teacher. At least a good one. You might have to open your eyes to the reality of education and you might not like that."
LOL!!!
For years I've contemplated the option of returning to school for my masters so I can teach when the little ones start school.
Your post explains why I haven't exactly gotten around to doing it yet. :)
I went back to school in my forties to get certified to teach and was very surprised at the quality of my education classes. There was some junk, but most of it was surprisingly solid. A thorough background is very definitely needed in the subject discpline and I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had higher requirements for its ed majors than its regular majors (English). But I have learned a lot from the ed courses.
My husband decided in college that he wanted to teach college. While he taught in grad school, he did a terrible job teaching, thinking subject matter was all he needed. Students complained and his adviser discussed it with him. When he realized that he wanted to teach, he enrolled him in ed courses even though he was enrolled in a research-oriented Ph.D. curriculum. Even today, he credits his ed courses for helping him be a good teacher.
It already has - it's called homeschooling and it works on a small yet significant fragment of the population. Enough that the teachers' unions feel pressure, apparently, since they constantly spew hate speech at homeschoolers. Yes, it's not the solution for every kid. But the more options are shown to work, the more likely we are to get market forces at work in education.
Proudly not the result of indoctrination from professional teachers. My loving amateur parents did a better job than anyone else could have.
People like your pops are few and far between, and desperately needed. He sounds like a wonderful person, I wish I had known him.
I was blessed to grow up in a nice area, and we had mostly excellent teachers. I can't complain.
Maybe I'm a bit biased on that count because I'm a civil engineer -- the one branch of engineering where professional licensure is an absolute necessity once you reach a certain point in your career.
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