[NLA] David's model and teacher certification

[Art LaChance]

My goodness Andres, I thought you lived way out there in TX but here you are living right in Gilmer County GA.  It appears you may be more on track than you think in your statement here.  The only real difference may in fact be the names involved because the philosophy sounds so familiar!!
Thanks for the insight !

As an aside, I come from a rehabilitation counseling background, so from my perspective it is perfectly logical that an adult literacy teacher should be familiar with the "how" of "learning", especially at an adult level.  In conjunction with that base knowledge, one should be totally familiar with the psychology of past ecucational experiences, the emotional impact of negative experiences, and how they affect new learning processes.  Then lets focus on subject material.

Art


Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay,Ga

Andres Muro wrote:

> Kathleen inquires:
>
> "Should a future GED instructor take a major in adult education or should he or she study math, science, English, etc. with a few courses in teaching and curriculum?"
>
> Neither. They should do a lot more than that. To begin, they should have already mastered the basics, science, language and math. They should then go into serious study of pedagogy, social theory, philosophy of education. psychology, and sociology, as well as time devoted to applied study. Unfortunately, current models for adult ed do none of what I suggest but one of the two that kathleen suggests. Some states want teachers to have a bachelor's in a field (inadequate to say the list) other states want teachers to have a k-12 certification (the worst, most derogatory and humiliating kind of de-learning and Orwellian brain washing that a person can be exposed to). Unfortunately, those who wish to become teachers are never exposed to the meaningful training that I suggest unless they do this beyond the meaningless training that teachers are required to possess. If I wanted to become a K-12 teacher in Texas or in most states I wouldn't qualify unless I took the necessary de-skilling
> courses mandated by the state, even if I had a post-doctorate. States want to make sure that their teachers don't have any "weird ideas". Making them attend a denigrating battery of courses just so that they can earn the lowest possible professional salary is a sure way to ensure that potential teachers do not have any weird ideas. Those that may, either drop out of the program before their brains collapse, or allow their neurons to be destroyed through exposure to meaningless stuff. However, if they do have any thoughts of their own, left, after four years of neuronal degrading, the system will take care of that by assigning them to report to an ex baseball, basketball or football  assistant principal who will likely think that the world is divided into the Mexicans to the South, the communists to the East and Canada up North. If you still have any ideas, he will make sure that you focus 99% of your thinking time to developing useless lesson plans and the rest in memorizing the Lee
> Canter's method for classroom discipline.
>
> Andres
>
> >>> KathleenBombach at aol.com 06/24/02 10:24AM >>>
> Ref: Teacher certification
>
> Roughly 10-15 years ago, the State of Texas took a hard look at its system
> for accrediting teachers.  What was discovered was something any high school
> student in the state could have said:  the focus on meeting teacher
> accrediting requirements had resulted in future teachers majoring in
> education and taking large numbers of courses in teaching, and not taking
> courses in the subject matter that they were going to teach.  To put it
> bluntly, many teachers in Texas knew very little about what they were
> teaching.  (As someone who attended Texas schools most of my childhood, this
> was no surprise. )
>
> The state blamed this situation on the expectation that future teachers would
> major in education, and somehow pick up enough courses in their subject
> matter to know enough to teach.  Actually, it was surprising how little
> preparation many teachers had in their teaching field.  They knew how to make
> bulletin boards, but not much else.  So the state abolished education as the
> major for future teachers.  Teachers must now have a content major, and a
> minor in education, to receive certification.
>
> (I have an additional explanation.  The focus on athletics in Texas schools
> meant that lots of men majored in education and minored in PE so that they
> could coach.  But coaching a sport is a two or three class period assignment
> each day, so these men were assigned to teach one or two content classes a
> day.  Often government, history, or health were those subjects, and we Texas
> students had to suffer through these classes taught by 'C' students who had
> taken (maybe) one or two classes in the subject in college.  You think I am
> joking?  Texas high schools, even small ones, typically have programs in
> football, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, tennis, soccer, baseball,
> softball, track, etc.  This is a lot of coaches to assign to teach
> government, history, English, health, etc.  Since I attended high school
> pre-Title IX, maybe we now have many women coaches with the same level of
> general ignorance.)
>
> If we move to accreditation of teachers, for God's sake, let's not repeat the
> errors of the elementary and secondary school systems.  Should a future GED
> instructor take a major in adult education or should he or she study math,
> science, English, etc. with a few courses in teaching and curriculum?
>
> Kathleen Bombach
>
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