Education

Here I go again, beating a dead horse.  But as Winston Churchill once said, "Never, Never, Never , Never give up...except to convictions of honor and good sense."  So, although my retired friends keep asking me why I still care, I do.

How ridiculous that the state of Michigan recently increased its requirements for the certification of teachers.  OK, at face value, that's a good thing--if one accepts "certification" as a good thing.  I've maintained for years that it's a sham, at least the way it's conducted.  Student teaching is perhaps one of the few aspects of certification I can accept; but there are serious flaws with even that.  And here the state is not only perpetuating such certification, mostly based on "process" and not knowledge, Michigan is makng it worse.

The increase in certification requirements focus on more courses on "the learning process."  State tests on content aside (and from what several folks who have taken the tests have told me, they are jokes), teachers need to know things and, if they don't, learn things.  A teacher can't teach what a teacher doesn't know.  And, pretty conclusively, more and more teachers know less and less.  The number one trait of a good teacher is not "caring" or any other "feely-touchy" characteristic, but knowledge (although communication skills are important, too, as is hard work).  Teachers must know things, that is, their subjects.  Far too many don't.

And how does the state of Michigan get away with such cetification?  Where are the teachers' unions, the ones so loudly proclaiming they are there "for the kids?"  At least they should admit they are not there "for the kids," but there to work for members.  And there is nothing dishonorable or devious in that.  Where are the administrators?  Aren't many colleges courses for administrators called "Educational Leadership?" Where's the "leadership" in not opposing process in favor of content, not to mention all the testing and the emphasis on it?

In things that matter, I hate to lose.  But I fear I have lost this battle, the one over quality education.  The battle has become politicized--politicians have taken over, the media have banged the drums, and the education establishment has, as usual, buckled rather than stand and fight for what's right, that is, rigorous quality education.  To cite Churchill again, though, I will never give up.....