When I was on the verge of retiring from the AF, I came perilously close to becoming a high school teacher. My wife worked in the school system in New Mexico and we had many friends from the Superintendent on down to the principals and teachers. They suggested that with my experience, I would be an asset to the school which suffered from a decidedly localized mentality. Few of the teachers had ever left the county let alone the country.
Take a look at this indictment of the educational system of America and the harm of federal involvement in that which traditionally has been a local matter:
No Content in Ed. School Curricula
In New Mexico, I set up an appointment at New Mexico State University's Education Dept. to meet with the chairman. I submitted my resume and work experience along with transcripts of both of my Master's degrees. They were going to work up a curriculum for me to get certified as a teacher in the public schools.
When I talked with the department chair, he displayed the program. Despite already holding a pair of graduate degrees and having formal military classroom and instructional experience including training instructors and course design, I would need an extended program of more than 130 semester hours to get certified! That is equivalent to a full four-year BS degree.
Courses included things like "classroom procedures" even though my work experience included years of platform presentation for technical courses taught to college graduates. There were blocks on "lesson planning" despite my training in Instructional System Development. There were hours of "test administration and design" which seemed to ignore my background creating such tools.
Possibly the worst requirement was the demand that I take "Geography 101." That's when the interview came to an abrupt conclusion. I looked at the professor and suggested that I didn't need to read about those places in a textbook--I'd been to most all of them.
That's what is wrong with teacher education and certification in America. And, it isn't going to change any time soon.
5 comments:
Never mind the requirements they wanted to slap on you--Geography 101! What a laugh!--just wait till they you got into the actual courses in the "field" of Education....
2+2=5
When are the American people are going to suck it up and simply ignore the bureaucrats and the PC? Its as if we are operating under some kind of societal ROE apparently written by fools and yet somehow very effective when it comes to softening us up for a final debacle. Sounds kind of familiar, don't it?
Here's a neat psychological profile of the impostor in chief:
http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections
It's not about your qualifications...its about how much money you are going to pay them for the privilege of being allowed to become an [s]Indoctrinator[/s] Teacher of our youth
Agreed.
It's also about getting down on all fours and demonstrating your willingness to submit. Although kowtowing is required by professors on both the left and right, there is an extra onus attached to kowtowing to the leftests because you know kowtowing is part of their religion, while kowtowing to a conservative or moderate bureaucrat is just business as usual.
YEP - Just what I would expect. We do NOT care about life expeiences and your expertise or prior requirements - Just GIVE US YOUR MONEY. Then teach what we tell you to. Maybe that is why the high school diploma carriers that I assist in finding occupations can NOT read simple instructions on the Job Applications such as "COMPLETE APPLICATION IN BLUE OR BLACK INK".
Good Job!! - Now DO IT RIGHT!! and I will forward it.
"...extra onus attached to kowtowing to the leftests because you know kowtowing is part of their religion..."
I studied this religion when I was in college. There are two denominations, sort of a High-Church/Low-Church distinction. The High-Church denomonation embraces a sophisticated creed founded on the many ways to "Hate America," while the Low-Church denomination is guided by a more simple creed of "self-destruction."
Interesting link:
http://www.westernyouth.org/index.htm
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