Quote" That too, but the real root problem is the fragmentation and local control of funding. The students from the poor areas of the country are educationally handicapped for a multitude of reasons, from lack of family patterning, to lack of simple resources such as books and adults they can talk to, to simple malnutrition. These same school districts are the ones with least money to spend on education, thus making sure that the situation will never improve." End Quote
The above is mainly the issue. I have a ED degree. I student taught History and Political Science in Inner City And Suburban Districts. I've spent the last 20 years working in my hobby, outside my degree. We produce way too m any new teachers. We don't need them. Most can't find a career in Edu. So t he Dollar Spent per Education Student ratio is low.
The US is really not selective in screening new teachers. Canada, for exam ple, requires a BS(Honors) degree in your planned teaching field(S) and the teaching degree is a ADD-ON. The add on comes in the form of highly specia lized practice in classroom techniques.
Additional issues:
- US teaching methodology is "Learn, Regurgitate, Forget". US schools rare ly require nor do they reinforce retention of prior knowledge.
- Our classroom discipline is comical. Teachers fear parental and student complaints and NEED a union to back them up. The worse thing I could do as a beginner was send a note home, or call home. "My kid is perfect" is the p revailing parental attitude no matter where I was at. I found classroom tea ching to be more of a popularity contest then a profession.
If my students were not quiet and happy, my principal was looking for an excuse to see me kicked out of the building, ASAP. Easiest way to have a q uiet class, don't rock the boat. Don't expect performance. Don't expect eff ort. Do not encourage discussion or creative thinking. Just lecture and sho w movies. Curve your grades.
If you call a parent, your principal is likely to get a call. Principals and Superintendents are "political" animals. You meet the odd one who valu es learning. But most are worried about running a smooth ship and a balance d budget.
Again, It is a popularity contest until you have Tenure. Once you have Tenure, say five years experience and approval from the B.O.E and State, then you can ramp your game up.
- Methodology is not standardized between School Districts and Colleges of Education. Nor is curriculum particularly standardized. What I took in col lege classes and what was in my classroom textbooks were two different thin gs. Each College of Education, and in fact each discipline, can have radica lly different methods and standards.
I had to change colleges in mid stream, as one dropped my program. The fir st college was hard core, switched on, and would have made a drill sergeant proud. Methodology was important, as well as core curriculum in your teaching fiel d. Four years of Educational Psychology courses were required. Simulated cl assrooms were used. Practice lessons were videotaped weekly and critiqued. We had mock interviews with district superintendents. Practicing teachers c ame in and evaluated us.
Field experience hours in actual schools were required. You were expect ed to teach short lessons in your field experience. Some teachers would act ually hand you a classroom for a week under supervision. You were rotated t hrough all grade levels during field experience.
Compare and contrast that with:
The second program had one Ed Psych program for both primary and secondary education. Each year had about one week of practice teaching with critique. Field Experience was just to visit and take notes, only in your desired gra de level. Professors mainly lectured about what was expected of you in the field, based on their own techniques. Sadly most of those professors expect ed you to buy the text THEY had written.
My final exam as a teacher candidate was 30% on elementary education qu estions. Things like properties of tempura paint, ballet, and teaching of m usic. At College One, I would have been tested in my fields, not on my ball et skills.
BTW, You can be a Professor of Educational Methods in the US with nearly ze ro experience in actual schools. A year or two will suffice in most cases. Not all colleges allow this, but many do.
- The current trend is to move away from text books and onto teacher prepa red materials. Then when homework is assigned, the parents have no referenc e. It is brutal. I've had to help my neighbors with fundamental, elementary math. After all, none of them have factored integer numbers in 20 years.
- In my inner city experience: We assigned no homework. The reasoning, was you'd never see the book again. Most students had under the table jobs to help support their family, so they were always tired. All work was thus cla ssroom based. The Basketball coach would interrupt at least two of my class es weekly. Sports outweighed Geography. Drunken parents arrived at parent t eacher conferences.
Attendance could dip to 50% on some days. It is LEARNED HELPLESSNESS, not a cultural issue. Inner city in this case was mixed race. Very much a socio- economic issue. However if you expect to fail, you have little motivation t o better your position. You will then pass that on to your children.
- Social promotion was brutal as well. In the inner city, I had students w ho could not read in the 10th grade. I mentioned Learned Helplessness. When your future vision involves economic futility, you give up. Your children then give up. High scoring students were socially badgered and teased FOR W ORKING. So the cycle perpetuates.
- Even back then, we were expected to teach to the standardized tests. This adsorbs huge amounts of classroom time re-teaching what should have b een re-enforced by continual practice and applied problems.
On Average, most students forget more then seventy percent of what they wer e taught on any given day in less then three days.
I was taught to teach High School History, Political Science, and Geogr aphy, not to teach Sixth grade Math and Reading. Things like reading requir e "methods" courses to teach. So you can break down the problems in standar dized ways that are understandable. Yet I had to spend mandatory time on re medial sixth grade reading skills, without proper "methods". Ouch!
Do have some mercy on Education Students. If they passed, they spent one ye ar in a unpaid, 50 hour a week job, teaching in an actual classroom. It is not just an internship, by the end, you will have the full load of a experi enced teacher. On top of that they should have around six hundred field exp erience and volunteer hours in public schools. BTW, in most states, the Uni on does NOT protect the "Student" teacher as they do this internship.
If you ever meet me in person, ask about how "Strawberry Jam and Bread sank the Bizmarck". Six students gave me that answer, on a "Fill in the Blank" exercise.
Let the flames begin. I'm used to entrepreneurs telling me school does not train their employees. So I've heard it all before.
Steve R.