A friend sent this email:
After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said: ‘Let me see if I’ve got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning. You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride. You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job. You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure they all pass the final exams. You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language by email, telephone, newsletter, and report card. You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for a supermarket position?“
My commentary:
Let’s help our teachers by promoting the best and compensating them well. Let’s make it easier for truly gifted individuals to enter the teaching profession. Why is it a teacher must have a teacher’s credential to teach high school English and yet that same individual can teach freshman English at our top universities as a TA with two-weeks of instruction and yearlong mentoring? Why not do the same in our K-12 program? Let’s bring the BEST and the BRIGHTEST into our classroom?
(Image above from blogs.babble.com)
Tags: A Teacher's Perspective, Education Reform, Eugenia Francis, TeaCHildMath