[NLA] David's model and teacher certification

[Marva Sones]

Mary's reading research project will help us meet the objective of training AE teachers in the most crucial area of all.  I am VERY excited about it.
Now, if I can ever get it all read......

We are WAY ahead of K-12.  I totally agree with Kathleen's' statement (present company, of course, excepted about the coach thing)

>>> KathleenBombach at aol.com 06/24/02 11:24AM >>>
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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