Having to cover classes for which there is no teacher, that's what:
Plans in Florida, Oklahoma and other states starved of teachers to give veterans and first responders a shot at teaching is a “slap in the face” to teachers, President Biden’s education secretary said today.
“To provide educators who are not qualified or trained in the pedagogy of teaching is a slap in the face to the profession,” said Miguel Cardona.
Training in pedagogy is, for the most part, an enormous waste of time. And how does Cardona know these people are not qualified? They may be (temporarily) uncredentialed, but to say they're unqualified is at least as much a slap in the face to those who want to enter the profession. Here's Florida's announcement regarding veterans:
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the launch of a new webpage to help recruit qualified military veterans to join schools across the state. On August 17th, the State Board of Education will consider a rule to formally implement a program for veterans to receive a five-year temporary education certificate while they finish their bachelor’s degree, provided they meet certain criteria. This rule implements SB 896, which Governor DeSantis signed earlier this year after it received unanimous bipartisan support throughout the 2022 Session. To learn more about this program, visit www.fldoe.org/veterans. To watch a video of Governor DeSantis discussing the progam, click here...
The State Board of Education will consider a rule to allow military veterans to obtain a 5-year temporary teaching certificate without a bachelor’s degree, providing the following criteria are met:
- Minimum of 48 months of military service with an honorable/medical discharge;
- Minimum of 60 college credits with a 2.5 grade point average;
- Passing score on a Florida subject area examination;
- Employment in a Florida school district, including charter schools; and
- Cleared background screening.
It chaps my hide quite a bit that they are more interested in somebody trained in the pedagogy rather than the actual subject.
ReplyDeleteSo what we end up with is "teachers" who are trained and certified as leftist activists in the "education" schools, rather than people who actually know the subject.
I'm sure that's by design.
ReplyDeleteRight now in Texas, so many teachers have retired or resigned that they are allowing people with ONE YEAR OF COLLEGE to be substitute teachers. Now, I'm with you, most of the education courses I took were a bunch of liberal psychobabble and had little to do with running a classroom BUT having a 19 year old in charge of 17 year olds, even for a day, is a recipe for disaster. Frankly I'm of the opinion the most experienced teachers should be in high school classrooms. That doesn't mean military professionals, with ongoing oversight and training, can't be very successful teachers. Some of the most successful teachers I've seen were veterans. But while the thought is good, teaching children is not like running a platoon. All this being said, one of the main reasons I retired early is that new hires, with no experience, were making only $2000 a year less than teachers like me with over 20 years experience. Now THAT is a problem school districts need to address. It should never be the case that someone starting out is making the same as teachers who have long term experience.
ReplyDeleteEllen K, I'm sure there are *bad* ideas out there. I only wanted to point out that De Santis' is not one of them.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's changed much, but when I attended school in the UK, the teachers usually had a bachelor's degree in the subject that they taught, often followed by a one year teacher's training program that taught them practical skills such as classroom management. "Pedagogy" wasn't a thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure most rookie teachers would rather have such practical knowledge rather than ivory tower crap.
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