This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by George Hayes 11 years, 3 months ago.
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Margaret Cardwell, 12 years ago
Dear Mr. McDaniel,
Thank you for sharing your views on the issue of teacher certification. According the Texas Education Agency, there are five basic requirements an individual must meet to become a classroom teacher:
1. Obtain a Bachelor’s Degree
2. Complete an Educator Preparation Program
3. Pass Appropriate Certification Exam(s)
4. Submit a State Application
5. FingerprintingUnder your proposal, would any of the above requirements remain necessary for ensuring the safety and quality of education of Texas’ school children?
Margo Cardwell
Policy Analyst
Texans for Greg AbbottKaren Mitchell Dolifka, 11 years ago
Ms. Cardwell,
I believe the 5 requirements you gave could be on a case by case basis. Why would George W. Bush need to complete all? We already know who he is, and what he would have to offer a class. Likewise, people like Mark Cuban , Robert Jeffress, Bill Gates, John L. Garrison, Jr., etc., that have been successful in life, and have much to offer, where is the need for them to pass certification?
If a successful person (known to the I.S.D.) wishes to teach at an appropriate grade level, in a subject where they are experts, why should all of the requirements apply?
Rather than have the same requirements demanded for all teachers, wouldn’t it be smarter for the I.S.D. to look at available applicants, and choose the best person to fill a position? … even if they don’t meet the above requirements.
I’m the one that never understood why the excellent shop teacher was fired for not passing the teacher version of the standardized test. What the teacher can do has always seemed more important than what they cannot do. After all, you would not expect your medical doctor to be a nuclear engineer as well.
George Hayes, 11 years ago
A lot of companies in have for a long time relied on the college degree system. Its a miserable failure to say the least. 75% of college graduates don’t work in the field of study they went to school for. A large part of them make no more money than those who don’t have a degree. Most people out of college take months to years to get trained to actually do the jobs they are hired to do even in their field of study.
A lot of companies are now pulling away from the strict degree requirement they are finally figuring out that a degree does not mean a person knows how to do the work. This is especially true in technical fields.
I went into the Navy at 21 trained as a Reactor operator through the Naval Nuclear Power Program. After the navy I went to work for DOD/DLA there I worked on everything under the sun. electrical/electronics programming plcs and computers developing equipment installs …. you name it. I left there and went to TI equipment engineering. I had the shortest time and highest score on the engineer test when they hired me.
I taught myself programming at 15 and have learned computer science mostly on my own its 20 times faster than college course ever have been.
I do tutorials on game programming, web development, cryptography… grhmedia.com and I am building conservativespace.comYet, when I couldn’t teach in a Texas school. They would rather hire someone with a degree who doesn’t actually know how something works or has never actually done the work. I recently seen were a school let a child work on fusion. However, the first thing I noticed is the radiation safety was 100% inadequate for the work being done.
I’d rather have teachers who actually know how to do something than just read up on it. I would rather have teachers who are willing to do what is actually necessary to protect the students like my son.
