The students I had that were education majors were either very poor, or outstanding. And when I was teaching Shakespeare once and gave as an option for a paper writing a lesson plan for teaching one of the plays, I was astonished by how good the lesson plans coming from the all ed majors were. I mean, not just good as plans, but good in the insight they showed into the play.
Joanna
----- Original Message ----- Doug: "American teachers, I'm sorry to say, mostly come from the bottom third of their college classes"
[WS:] What makes you believe that an advanced college degree is essential for successful teaching at the grade level? Some of the worst teachers I had had advanced degrees but could not teach to save their lives. What makes successful teaching is the ability to break down knowledge to manageable chunks and effectively communicate them to students. One does not need a degree in physical therapy to teach children how to walk, but one needs a lot of patience.
This whole college credential business for teachers feeds into the American concept of teaching as "technical management of discipline" instead of communicating ideas, which requires personal interaction.
Wojtek ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk