As one of the conditions of employment in the district that is now laying me off, I had to get what's known in California as a CLAD certificate. CLAD is Cross-cultural, Language, and Academic Development.
You can probably tell where I'm headed with this, and it's nowhere good.
One way to get the certificate is to take 12 semester-units of courses (the state specifies which courses). Another way is to take a test, which apparently no one passes. Two and a half years ago, Sac State got a grant to put teachers through the CLAD program, and since I needed the certificate and could use the 12 units to move over on the salary scale, I enrolled.
I'd never been to a real civilian university before. I got my BS in math from West Point and my teaching credential through an alternative credentialing program. I'd read and heard about the liberal climate in universities, and Sac State's education college has a reputation all its own. Figuring that I could hold my breath for a year if I needed to, I jumped only partially knowing what to expect.
I am a member of a maillist of educators from across the US (and from a couple foreign countries). Since this maillist consists of what many call "traditional" educators, those who decry the whole language and fuzzy math and multiculturalism that are so injurious to a truly liberal education, I thought I'd keep them informed with periodic updates about what went on in the classes. I didn't do a very good job, writing only 6 posts over the course of 10 months. I'll reprint those posts here so you can see the hell I went through in that program.
Through these posts you'll see much of what is wrong with teacher education programs in general.
No comments:
Post a Comment