Thursday, September 06, 2007

Locking the Door on Qualified Teachers

Harrison Scott Key has a rant regarding required training for educators:

K-12 teacher certification is a real racket. I have been hired by reputable universities to teach English, but mediocre high schools would more than likely have to turn down my application. That's because college teachers need no certification. They need degrees. And they need their peers – presumably those who are on the hiring committee and who will be working with them – to believe they have the ability and capacity to teach. But not K-12 teachers. They need to be stamped by the education industry, mainly with lots of courses in a non-subject called “education” – which includes everything from useless child psychology to useless bulletin-board making.

I agree wholeheartedly. It really irritates The Oracle -- who has a master's degree and therefore could teach courses in his field at the college level -- that he is deemed unqualified to teach high school history, though a football coach who hasn't read a book since third grade is deemed qualified.

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