Non-teachers suggested for U.S. shortage

USA TODAY ^ | 9/16/02 | Laurence McQuillan

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Secretary of Education Rod Paige says a shortage of public school teachers could be ended if states put qualified non-teachers in classrooms, but he says the National Education Association, the biggest teachers union, is standing in the way.

"There are still some guardians of mediocrity out there fighting to keep the status quo," Paige said Monday in an interview with USA TODAY and Gannett News Service reporters.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

NEA stands for mediocrity. What does that mean to students?

[RISU]

Now we have the appellation: "Qualified Non-Teacher"

Sounds perfect for my kid. At least he head wouldn't get filled with propaganda and mush if he was "non-teached"

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

And why the h@ll not?

After all, we have non-parental types breeding children...

sarcasm_off>

[Lil'freeper]

..open up the profession to allow any and everybody to come in.

Such as scientists, CPAs, nurses, lawyers, engineers, and professionals of every stripe. I shudder to think what these "underqualified" people could do to children's brains.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

"I think there's a system that blocks people out of the teaching profession who would be wonderful teachers. ... I think there's a need to change the way we certify and prepare people to go into the classroom."

EXACTLY. In some instances they want you to have a flipping master's degree (in some bogus subject area, of course) in order to teach grade school. I'd teach high school English, history, or civics in a New York minute if it weren't for all the bogus hoops I'd have to jump through up here in MA in order to do so.

And I'm sorry, but the dumbest people I knew in college were the education majors.

[NEPA]

Where is this teacher shortage? Here in north PA there are more teachers than jobs for them so they either move or more often just do something else. I considered being an ed major (25 years ago) but there was a glut of teachers plus the ed majors were mostly kids not smart enough to have a any other major).

[bimbo]

Now we have the appellation: "Qualified Non-Teacher"

… much more desirable than what we now find in the classrooms: ”Non-qualified Teachers.”

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

"Whatever kind of teacher that 85% of the richest people who send their children to public schools have for their kids, that's what I want for everyone. I don't believe that's a teacher who has entered through the alternative certification route."

Note the qualifying clause (emphasis added). The point that is being cleverly evaded is that the best schools (which are private schools) do not require that instructors have "education" credentials, but that the instructors be "domain experts." In other words, an English teacher would have a degree in English; a history teacher would have a degree in history.

The most mediocre students tend to major in "education." Consequently, the persons least qualified to teach are those with formal teaching credentials. This is why they need a union to protect their job security, and why public education only survives because it is a government monopoly.

[SC DOC]

Hire non-teachers? Heaven forbid. We could wind up with the likes of Jaime Escalante

</sarcasm>

[TommyDale]

This is too funny -- California is threatening parents who home school with legal actions, if they are not certified teachers. Yet, it other states, the NEA thinks it is okay to use "non-teachers".

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

I can't imagine why a well-educated person wouldn't be a government school teacher. There is no discipline in schools, parents don't support teachers who try to demand excellence and the NEA stands in the way of reforms. Administrations and school boards seldom listen to teachers. It sounds like the "ideal" job to me.

Maybe the teacher shortage will go away as more and more responsible parents give up on public schools and pull their kids out of the mess to be sent to private schools or home-schooled where students can actually learn something.

[Greeklawyer]

This is like the time they traded Social Workers for Case Workers. The Social Worker then became the Supervisor for the less educated Case Worker. In order to make the qualified non-teachers work they must follow a set manual without deviation. (big brother loves you. ignorance is strength)

[Sloth]

I think you misread this... the NEA opposes the use of "non-teachers" (i.e., teachers w/o Ed. degrees)

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

How do you apply "non-qualified teacher" to those of us who are physicians, attorneys, CPAs, business owners, computer specialists, musicians, math majors, language majors, comp majors, writers... yet don't have the damn teachers certificate?

Why are the parents of those national award achieving home schooled students placed in the "non-qualified" category?

If you owned stock in a company which performed such as our public school system has, would your investment still be there if the same team and same rules continued to apply? What could make the system worse than it is today?

[RISU]

Just concentrating on the phrase "Non-qualified teacher".

Why would anyone want a "non-qualified" anything? Non-qualified dentists, non-qualified-engineers, non-qualified-doctors? Sounds like a persciption for failure.

Our language has been turned upside down and inside out, and this means we can't "think" anymore.

We need ordinatry caring people as teachers, not paper carrying timeservers. The solution to our education is to get the Federalistas out of it. They turn everything into a power trip.

[W. W. SMITH]

If they realy want to improve schools they should exclude ed majors from consideration as teachers. Evan high scool grads with a 3.0 gpa or higher could do a better job than an ed major.

[anoldafvet]

The only problem is if you have a Master's degree, you are too expensive to hire. My wife, who holds a Master's degree, has been told on numerous occasions that they can hire two teachers out of school for what they would have to pay her. She actually knows people with Masters who won't admit to anyone that they have them.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Assuming all circumstances, once out of office, why would President Bush be unqualified if he wanted to teach political science?

[RISU]

Not much better. Who wants their kids taught by a "non-teacher"?

Look, no one should have "ownership" on the word teacher. It's a job. When you are doing the job you are a teacher.

These creeps that infest the education system are timeservers trying to nail down exclusive opwnership and rights associated with being "teacher". Fire them all, and then make them reapply to the parents of the community for the job. Get the Federal Government Deptartment on Education scrapped. It is a waste. Do away with it, and go back to community based educational systems.

Whop cares if they are all different? There is no law that says everyone has to think the same, act the same, be the same. We have a stronger society when we have variations in the curriculums.

Education today is driving kids nuits, and producing nothing but weakness in the society. And it is all do to substituting propagand in place of skill and ability building.

[Greeklawyer]

"...Why would anyone want a "non-qualified" anything?..."

That is the point. The Teachers are trying to boost their status. The teachers can't lift themselves up, so they diminish everyone else. Home school parents are non-qualified teachers. Adjunct specialty teachers become non-qualified. It is like saying "amature brain surgeon".

Actually being able to teach is not the issue. Children who actually learn is not the issue. Children who can think for themselves is not the issue. Being "qualified" for the job by making a negative of those who are "un-qualified." is the point.