Do Young Americans Have a Clue?

[JustChristian]

I don't have a problem with those suggestions.

I would add another: We should strongly revise the standards for teacher licensure. BSE degrees tend to be very heavy on the educational coursework and lighter on the content than their BA/BS counterparts. For elementary school, the educational courses are completely needed. For older students, though, I believe that it would be preferable to lower the required number of courses for the education departments and to increase the number of courses in the content area.

I also believe that non-traditional programs of licensure should be more accessible.

Additionally, I think that teachers should be required to have at least a 3.25 GPA to teach, and I'd like to see a 3.5 in the content area, also. Exceptions could be made for areas of teacher shortage, but subjects with a current glut of instructors could benefit by having more qualified instructors. I know that graduates with MAs in history had difficulty finding any jobs in high schools because 1) They'd have to go through non-traditional programs (schools didn't want the hassle) and 2) They couldn't coach anything. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to say that a person who barely graduated with a BSE and who coaches basketball should be in the classroom over someone with an MA.

Both my mother and my aunt were teachers before they retired and I definitely think the profession deserves much more respect than it gets in America. Teachers need to earn it however. They should definitely have annual performance reviews like professionals who work in industry have. I agree that college education majors should definitely be made more rigorous. That being said, I think teachers deserve higher pay.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Teachers

For some strange reason or reasons it appears that it is politically correct or advantageous to criticize both teachers and public schools. This seems true on both the left and the right, by fundamentalist Christians as well as liberal Christians. You should remember that in America the goal is to educate or try to educate all children. In most countries this if far from true and a child that either cannot make the grade, pass the state tests or is a problem are dismissed from school, even elementary schools, and have no chance at an education.