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After nearly 20 years of working as a television writer, I made a radical life decision: to teach English at an L.A. public high school. I felt it was time for me to make a difference, to share my passion for language and literature with the next generation. Sure, I knew that the pay would be abysmal and that the teaching conditions in gang-infested, impoverished communities might be tough. But I really wanted to try, so I braced myself to keep going even if there were times of struggle, of heartbreak, of feeling inadequate and humiliated, even if there were times when I wanted to weep from frustration, even if I sweated through dark nights of the soul overwhelmed by the futility of it all.
And indeed, I have experienced all that. But what's crazy is that I haven't even set foot in a classroom yet.
By state law, I cannot teach in a California public school without a credential from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. On the face of it, this requirement makes sense. Schools can't go around hiring any slob who professes a love of children and a burning desire to make $39,788 a year (the LAUSD starting pay scale for interns).
But just applying to a teaching-credential program has taken me months of pointless, numbing, bewildering toil. I've submitted stacks of applications, online and on paper, along with college transcripts and letters of recommendation. I've written a five-page letter of "self-reflection," completed 45 hours of early field experience, endured a TB test and had my fingerprints taken to prove that I'm not a convicted felon. And that was just to start the actual work: proving I am "highly qualified."
As mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act and interpreted by the Legislature, all teachers in public schools must be deemed "highly qualified." Again, fair enough. One of the notorious disgraces of our public school system is the way the best teachers are funneled into schools serving high-income students, while children from low-income families are often stuck with far less-qualified teachers.
I have a bachelor of arts degree in English from Bryn Mawr and have spent my entire adult life as a working writer -- and all I want is to sign up to take the education classes I need before I walk into a classroom. Won't my degree and my life's work qualify me at least to sign up for those classes? Not even close. First, I had to take the CBEST, a four-hour exam on reading, writing and math.
After taking the CBEST, I still had not proved "subject matter competence." For that, I would have to fill the apparent gaps in my transcript with five courses in linguistics, expository writing, adolescent literature and American literature -- or pass something called the CSET, an Orwellian, five-hour sequence of four exams with some questions so obscure I would defy most PhDs to answer them. What is a modal verb? What's an embedded appositional phrase? A grapheme? Can you pick the meaning of a poem from a list of answers a, b, c and d, none of which in any way capture the ineffable beauty of the poem itself?
By studying for weeks, I managed to pass the CSET. And by a miracle, I found a job teaching at a charter school in South L.A. as an emergency hire, or intern, through a program that gives a temporary credential to teachers willing to work in schools that would otherwise be hard to staff, while taking education classes at night.
To enroll in the intern program, I had to fill out more applications and then complete 40 hours of pre-service training in teaching English language learners, a course that in theory would have been very useful but in fact only entailed reading a stack of paperwork and writing essays I suspected would be stuck in my file unread. I also had to summarize what I'd learned in a page of sentences that began with "I used to think," and ended with "but now I know ... ." Whatever the actual purpose of this exercise, writing about my former state of ignorance felt deeply sinister, like some kind of forced confession by a totalitarian state.
And I had to pass an 80-question, unbelievably arcane and ambiguously worded test on the U.S. Constitution. I have wracked my highly qualified brain, and I cannot imagine any possible rationale for this test. Because if I hadn't memorized the Bill of Rights I might march into the classroom and try my students twice for the same crime? Or force them to quarter soldiers in their homes? What is being tested here? My patriotism? My sanity? My level of desperation? What's next ... eating centipedes?
Remember: This is not to finish my teacher education. This is to be allowed to enroll in it.
Meanwhile, a new study shows that 33% of California high school students drop out before graduating; Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has speculated that in particularly underserved Los Angeles communities, the dropout rate might be as high as 70%.
I understand the idea of "standards-based" education. I embrace the need to hold teachers in low-income schools to the same standards as teachers who work with more privileged children.
But the standards to which I'm being held here are not high standards; they are just a high pile of standards, a mountain of detritus generated by various acts of legislation whenever new statistics come out showing that California schools are failing, that teachers are fleeing the state, that high school students can barely read. In a system so broken, a system that already deters most applicants with its near-poverty-level wages and difficult working conditions, why are they trying so hard to weed out anyone who, in spite of everything, still wants to come in and change a child's life?
Ellie Herman has been a television writer since 1989. This fall, she will be an intern teacher at a charter school in South L.A.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
73 Comments so far
Show AllRuthru, I do agree that Presidential candidates should be qualified, but because the President is also the Commander-in-Chief, the top of the military, the President should also have military experience.
Buy outdated books at the college for a few bucks, and read away.
By-pass the BS and absorb the good stuff. Works Great!
Gorsegrower said.....A voice apart: '…one of those little things that irks' is incorrect. One irks, but things irk. There are things that irk me, too, and this is one of them.
Actually, "A voice apart" was correct. This one is one of my pet peeves :)
In the phrase "one of those little things that irks"
the word "one" is the subject of the sentence.
The word "things" is the object of a prepositional phrase (of those little things) being used to describe the subject "one" in the sentence. Remove the prepositional phrase "of those little things" and you find that "one" is the subject, and therefore matches the verb "irks".
TeriD [August 3rd, 2008 6:20 pm] wrote: What no one seems to understand is that our school system is NOT about learning. It is essentially about teaching control, conformity, and consumerism. Initially school evolved to assure a person an 8th grade level of education, whence they would get a job working on the line: a job they would have for 20 years. Education provided those basic skills that they would need to get through life.
Absolutely right, TeriD, and my friends who teach and have taught school at various grade levels say the same thing. Speaking of bright kids: One of the glaring contradictions of our time is that parents want their kids to excel in every subject but, at the same time, don't want them to be an 'egghead' or 'brainiac' that sits around reading all day. Many parents force their bright kids into sports that they have no interest in -- it's an epidemic, from what I've heard -- just so little Dick or Jane won't suffer from being insufficiently 'socialized' with other children.
As heavy runner [August 4th, 2008 12:25 am] noted, another change from the days when a high school diploma meant something is that parents today, unlike those of 40 years ago, are more likely to believe what their child says and argue with the teacher over their grades, rather than tell the child to study harder. It's easier, as a teacher friend disgustedly said to me, echoing what his district administrator told him privately, to just "pass 'em and make 'em someone else's problem." Eventually, though, that 'someone else' is society in general, as we are seeing.
Let's not forget that this is probably the lowest ebb in history for teachers in this country. Elementary school, and even some high school teachers, especially in poorer neighborhoods, have to buy much of their own classroom materials these days, as well as spend their hard-earned money on additional certification classes. It's also happens that students are given a reading list, but many of the kids can't afford to buy the books on the list, and there aren't enough copies at the school library -- if the school even has a functioning library. In my city, while spending on the student body was deeply slashed and our schools were falling apart, nearly every senior school board administrator voted themselves a private office bathroom with a shower.
Kathleen Perez [August 3rd, 2008 7:51 pm], I agree, I think this is all part of a scheme to privatize public education -- great for the wealthy who will have the taxpayer subsidizing their child's expensive education via vouchers; terrible for the poor and middle-class who will have extremely limited options such as local parochial schools. Even though every attempt so far -- such as the Edison Project -- to privatize public education has been an unprofitable failure, the right-wing continues to press for it
nonetheless.
guliper [August 3rd, 2008 10:35] pm wrote: Those who can't teach, are lawyers.
Or else they join the military and become general officers.
greenerthanthou [August 4th, 2008 2:42 am] good comment. Yes, just look at the long lines of miserable shoeless air travelers at the typical US airport, paying hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket only to get mauled and frisked by snarly rent-a-cops from the TSA. It reminds me of those old B&W newsreels of the USSR from the '50s, showing the dour, slack-jawed citizens lined up to receive their weekly bread ration. The narrator would say something like, "Aren't you glad you live in America where we don't have to stand in queues like the Soviet Communists!" Stalin would be jealous of the sheep we've become under Bush -- between bouts of uncontrollable laughter, that is.
ArbeitMachtFrei [August 4th, 2008 7:29 am], apt imagery, but an afternoon at the unlicensed proctologist might be more like it.
Your experience has raised my admiration for my daughter-in-law who is now teaching at a Charter School in Long Beach. BTW, she didn't complain about the difficulty of preparing for her job.
Schools tell you what to THINK,not necessarily HOW to THINK.
That is the literal truth and the greatest difference in education from say 1958 to 2008. It is the single greatest tool thats been taken away from children.
"Of course, many also go into debt and send their kids off to their local 'God & Country' indoctrination college"
That is exactly what your local college or university is not. Indoctrination yes. Simply because they lack intellectual diversity. Peruse your local universities course schedule and you will find out what is wrong.
Another thought struck me rereading the posts above, I wonder why teachers feel they are different from other public employee's? Or should teachers be exempt from the requirements of other employees?
The real problem of course pointed out by others is the fact that if you can't control your classroom, if you don't have discipline, you can't teach any one. Next when did parents get a pass, blaming teachers for their own laziness and slack.
skidog August 4th, 2008 1:09 pm
Books are a wonderous thing for sure, the problem is we are producing kids that can't read them or understand what they are saying.
Schools tell you what to THINK,not neccesarily HOW to THINK.
For that we have CD and the promise of the INTERNET-if we can keep it.
And of course the WORLD of BOOKS !
Wow! between the excellent posts by people who are desperate to actually try to educate the children of our over-protective parents who think their angels are incapable of wrong....and the vacuous one-liners, no doubt from some of those same parents....
I am very thankful that I have not had children.
What a meat grinder.
No wonder everyone who values a good education ends up going into debt to get their kid into a private school these days.
Of course, many also go into debt and send their kids off to their local 'God & Country' indoctrination college so they can attempt to maintain control well into young adulthood.
I am so glad I do not have children.
Kathleen Perez August 4th, 2008 12:05 pm
I simply disagree. And I don't believe that fingerprinting is being handled well or as it should be. But anyone that takees that position of responsibility should have no reservations about being fingerprinted once.
Policemen are. Firemen are. Servicemen are. Are teachers so much better? Don't get hung up on child molesters, there are abusers, felons and other people that are excluded from teaching as they should be.
"Not to mention the quality of "education" that is being forced upon children by NCLB"
While we certainly agree on NCLB, another program designed to further depress education, there are plenty of problems in education other than that. Quality of teachers being one of the foremost and what and how they teach another.
"Don't even get me started on taxpayer supported religiious schools, which are in all too many locations emotionally abusive institutions which stifle curiosity and experimental capacity."
I don't believe in taxpayer suopported religious schools period. But a blankt statement like yours ids flat wrong. There are some cathloic schools here that produce a much superior level of education.
And if you want some stifling of curosity and experimentation, some lack of intellectul diversity, visit the average public school. And before you reach for the beheasding axe, empirically I am more than right. Education like everything else can be measured by its product.
There is no presumption of guilt, simply a safety measure. What exact freedom would you be giving up by giving your fingerprints?
COLLEEN: Thank you for the analysis of the Lapham flm. I will try to see it.
GREENER THAN THOU: I had the same exact reaction you did. Having graduated with a degree in English/education, and having left the teaching field to raise two daughters, when it was convenient to "go back," the battery of tests, the time involved, etc was off-putting. I figured maybe I would just substitute teach, only to learn I had to be finger printed for the FBI, piss-tested (and pay for these tests), and this was before 911. It just seemed far too much of an intrusion.
I never went back into the classroom, apart from teaching freelance courses (very low pay) at community colleges, and doing some private tutoring.
Excellent comments on this thread. As the United Negro College used to say in its ads, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Now thanks to the neocon version of "education," lots of minds are being purposely wasted.
Mr. Thomas More:
You do not know what you are talking about. The fingerprinting process you refer to is yet another bureaucratic scam which creates additional layers of bureaucracy. Teachers, when moving from district to district, are required to be fingerprinted repeatedly. If one set exists and adequate identification can be provided by an applicant, for example, a passport, there is no reason to insist on additional documentation of identity. Unless, of course, you are assuming that child molesters are so well organized that they can forge such identification with minimal effort, in which case I say the same process should apply every time someone like you applies for a home loan or moves on to another form of employment. And then we'll see how well adjusted you are to such harassment.
This isn't about protecting children, it's about giving bureaucrats additional work and creating a market for security companies. If we were really concerned about protecting children, there would be many thousands fewer homeless or in a home situation where work and sustenance remain iffy situations. Not to mention the quality of "education" that is being forced upon children by NCLB, which is itself a form of abuse of young people and completely heedless of their INDIDUAL developmental capacity. Nothing so much gives the lie to the belief people in this country have that this is a society that respects indivuals as the very sorry state of both public and private education. Don't even get me started on taxpayer supported religiious schools, which are in all too many locations emotionally abusive institutions which stifle curiosity and experimental capacity.
Let's not confuse the matter, Mr. More. While you may be willing to live with a social structure that presumes guilt, or a potential history of child molestation in every teaching applicant, a good many of us have had enough. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, those who would exchange liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty or security.
TeriD August 3rd, 2008 6:20 pm
This and other comments in the same vein are more than not correct.
As to the fingerprinying, its needed to make sure you are who you say you are and that you are not a child molester, etc. I'm sorry, but the safeguarding of our children is more importatnt I think, than someone's aversion to it.
I found the article valid except that it sounded more like a standard elite complaint "I shouldn't have to follow the same rules as everyone else" California is also much different than most of the US. Payment is now coming due apparently.
yeah ArbeitMachtFrei
The wealthy will move where the money is..someone like Rupert Murdoch gives a clue as to how they are. Now with American citizenship, Murdoch has a new wife who is Chinese and he is investing in China while controlling the news media in the US with outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
Its all about control. Maybe Freud was wrong and the main force is a need for power or control..which I think was Adler's hypothesis...with notions about inferiority and superiority.
g50,
"Why would the "ruling class" want to keep people impovershed? How does that make anybody money?"
Marx said that the process of the accumulation of capital is basically the process of squeezing the maximum amount of surplus labor value out of each product produced. The value of a product produced being the cost of inputs + the value of added labor. Since the cost of inputs are largely fixed, the only way to keep maximizing profits is to squeeze labor mercilessly---subsistence wages.
Of course, you're intuitively correct since the process produces an extreme maldistribution of wealth and a crisis as wealth can't circulate as people become too poor to buy products. This would put pressure on capitalists to expand markets in search of new customers (what we call globalization).
A synopsis of the film ..(and apparently it has spoilers) ..but the film itself is very interesting and people here should definitely see it imo.
The American Ruling Class
"The American Ruling Class, the worlds first dramatic-documentary-musical, explores our countrys most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic. This feature-length satire stars Lewis Lapham, the renowned essayist and author, and a heavy-weight ensemble cast that includes former cabinet secretaries, corporate mandarins, media magnates, and at least one journalist working as a waitress. The film follows Lapham and two recent Yale graduates as they make the rounds of Pentagon briefings, the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, law firms, corporations banks, and New York society dinners as they attempt to answer the question, Who rules America?
The narrative portion of the film, interwoven throughout, tells the story of two representative graduates, one rich and one poor as they seek direction in their lives. Does America have a ruling class? If so, of what is it made, and how does it co-exist with our democracy? How does one join it: should one even want to? The real life luminaries become characters in a story about power and its responsibilities, and by the films end, the young men must decide: do they wish to rule the worldor save it?
Appearing in the film are a range of leaders from across the political spectrum, among them: Robert B. Altman, James A. Baker III, Bill Bradley, Harold Brown, Hodding Carter III, William T. Coleman, Jr., Walter Cronkite, Barbara Ehrenreich, Martin Garbus, Vartan Gregorian, Mike Medavoy, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Samuel Peabody, Peter G. Peterson, Pete Seeger, Lawrence H. Summers, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., William Howard Taft IV and Kurt Vonnegut.
As we watch these two real-life graduates wend their way through what is only a slight fictionalizing of their actual lives and choices, as we meet former Secretaries of State and Defense, directors of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, the publisher of The New York Times, and a host of others, we must ask (along with Mr. Lapham): "To what end, the genius of the Wall Street banks and the force of the Pentagon's colossal weapons? Where does America discover the wisdom to play with its wonderful toys?" The possible answers move beyond the hollow category of party affiliation and into the heart of American Oligarchy itself."
g50
The ruling elite want well educated people who will follow rules. or they want uneducated people who will keep their place and do as told...
Whatever level they are at..chauffeur, maid, teacher...doctor...they must keep their place
They do not want people who question and oppose the ruling elite.
They see the lower classes as expendable and they can be replaced by foreign workers like Mexicans
Your answer will be found in this film:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455906/
plot:
"In this first of its kind "dramatic-documentary-musical", Lewis Lapham takes two young Ivy-League graduates on a tour of the corridors of power. The novice careerists must decide: should they seek to rule the world, or to save it?"
The elite take a select few into their group if they will conform to the elite's standards...This film shows you how that is done...using ivy league schools
( Howard Zinn is in the film too : ) )
So I'm always curious about this kind of thing. Why would the "ruling class" want to keep people impovershed? How does that make anybody money? For the economic elite to prosper everyone in America must buy as much as possible, so it would do no good to deliberately consign people to poverty - that is as far from economically sensible as anything.
It's a big Club...and you ain't in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg
TeriD August 3rd, 2008 6:20 pm
"What no one seems to understand is that our school system is NOT about learning. It is essentially about teaching control, conformity, and consumerism."
heav y runner August 4th, 2008 12:25 am
"you were expected to be a person with a broken spirit who never asked questions and blindly obeyed any and all direction from your principal or any other District authority. Also, the parents were to be treated as "customers," as in "The customer is always right.""
...................
Yes and what Ellie Herman (author of the article) has gone through is to see whether she also can be controlled.
Its about control ....NOT education
*****************************************
The best way to increase learning in the schools is to decrease the number of students in classrooms. More teachers and volunteers.....more adults...in the elementary schools....thats what is needed.
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The educational establishment in the colleges have enforced credentials for teaching with courses in their colleges as a money maker for the colleges. Those classes are generally worthless. I went to Trenton State College in NJ for teacher certification.... a school that now calls itself The College of NJ. There are some big egos there and if you learn to suck up you will do fine.
I was thinking about this article today during my visit to the doctor.
As the doctor was checking my testicles, rolling my nuts in the palm of his hand like rolling a pair of dice at Las Vegas, I was thinking that via our shitty educational system, they've really got us by the balls!
education where 50% of the kids drop out in parts of the US. That is what the war machine wants, stupid kids where no other options of a job but Wal Mart and the military. No wonder I moved out of that shit hole.
I believe that it was Max Weber who defined bureaucracy as "the application of rules."
Teach the teachers to teach...
Teach the teachers of the teachers to teach...
Teach the teachers of the teachers of the teachers to teach....
Teach the teachers of the teachers of the teachers of the teaches to teach....
Oh...my nipples are sore!
Lots of things are off kilter in our society but nothing is more important than our educational system. I agree with the comments that suggest that the ruling elite intentionally guts our education system to create more servile workforces.
I would like to read more about Ms. Herman's interest in teaching h.s. English. Something tells me she might write about her classroom experiences.
I fear that she will learn that she won't be doing much teaching, that her inner city students will come to school with problems her zeal and skill cannot overcome. And then she will be blamed.
My sister, who has two masters, one that she got on a full fellowship at Stanford, used to be a h.s. English teacher. First, she taught abroad. When she returned to the states, she was censured for teaching poetry instead of vocabulary. When her students behaved badly -- and we are talking about very scary bad behavior -- she was blamed for not having good classroom management skills. The whole year was a nightmare.
She got fired. She announced her firing to each of her classes. In her worst class, one of the behavior problem classes, one of her gangster students said "you got fired because you gots too many guys like me here". Even the problem kids knew the problem wasn't the teacher. The whole system is out of control.
oh my goddess, this society is in trouble, eh?
Public Schools have become part of the problem.
Like the Interstate Highway System.
We can waste a whole lot of our time attempting to "reform" or "fix" these systems or we can admit they are duds and move on to other, more sustainable and adapted ones.
As for Higher Education, any disciplined Mind can learn just as much by reading the course books on their own or with a few friends.
Why waste your money? I'm sorry I did.
Here's a joke:
Q:Why do Garbage Men get paid more than Teachers?
A:Because Garbage Men do something USEFUL.
Is that an anthill I see stirring?
Have Fun,
-matti.
"....why are they trying so hard to weed out anyone who, in spite of everything, still wants to come in and change a child's life?"
By hiring such individuals, the corporate elitist goal of 'dumbing down' the population would not be achieved. How else can you make minimum wage jobs the goal of job seekers?
I agree with TeriD. I have 3 kids, all above average, of course. My 2 smart, but not gifted children graduated from college. But my truly brilliant child failed his first semester at the University of Illinois and has never gone back. He just didn't want to jump through the hoops, and he didn't want to spend his life in a cubicle.
Ms. Herman mentions the fingerprinting as just another hassle she was subjected to. I find fingerprinting to be outrageous and unacceptable. I quit volunteering at my child's school when they announced a background check policy. Excuse me? I'm giving up my time to help the school and they want to treat me like a criminal?
Submitting to the collection of biometric data in the interest of getting a job is just making it easier for the ruling class to control us. It amazes me how easily Americans, you know, the "brave and the free", submit to peeing in cups, background checks, fingerprinting, and other forms of social control. There is no outrage, no refusal, just a beaten down submission to authority. Shame on us! To give up our freedom for a chance at a job! How dare they ask!
Using obstacles courses like the author described, we will effectively keep many highly qualified highly idealistic potential teachers OUT of the school system that needs them so badly.
Then we can say: "The public school system does not have enough qualified teachers. The system is failing, and we need REFORM, in the form of vouchers (that is, privatization.)"
Get it? It's part of the overall goal to wreck public education, the middle class, .... a complete redistribution of wealth toward the top 1% or less.
Problem is that people like TeriD who know the score are not designing the certification process.
Interesting how the conservatives are subjecting potemtial teachers to these rigerous batteries of tests of thier knowledge. These are the very same people who advocate the teaching of "intellegent design" or creationism as science in the schools right along side of evolution.
A voice apart: "I am going to try it out and I hope that it covers one of my pet grammatical peeves - using the word "that" when speaking about a person or people instead of "who." IE: "Those that cannot speak properly should not be made president." Correct: "Those who cannot speak properly should not be made president."
Just one of those little things that irks one in life."
How about the word "reiterate" in lieu of "iterate?" Or..."each and every one of you?"
The system is structured to fail. Public schools are to be privatized or eliminated. Why the hell does one work at a Charter school? Did you sign a loyalty oath?
Like the man said if you want to change the institution you cannot do it from the inside for the institution changes you.
provoice is right. "First of all, you have just scratched the surface of the CYA paperwork that is required of a teacher today."
I taught elementary school for Seattle Public Schools for 15 years. If you become a contract teacher you will discover that the irrational and irrelevant hoops you are now jumping through continue.
Legislatures respond to citizen demands for better schools not by taxing the wealthy and spending more appropriate amounts on education for all, but by putting yet another requirement on teachers. For example, in the State of Washington teachers were required to earn 30 college credits every 5 years to keep their certificates, which was called the "continuing," certificate, but was no longer a permanent credential based upon your Master's degree or whatever. You had to keep taking classes, paid for out of your own pocket, or you would lose your certificate and your job. At $250 a credit hour I found that it just about ate up whatever raise or bonus I earned each year.
This meant that summer, which is unpaid leave, not vacation, was always filled with university classes of one kind or another.
I never succumbed to it, but you were expected to be a person with a broken spirit who never asked questions and blindly obeyed any and all direction from your principal or any other District authority. Also, the parents were to be treated as "customers," as in "The customer is always right." Sadly, often the parents were a screwed up mess and they were anything but right, and the sort of petty careerist lackeys who were sent in as principals no longer stood up for the teachers, but made them the whipping boys caught in a crossfire between whatever bureaucratic crap was coming down the line and the insane parents who were following instructions from religious fascists like Jerry Fallwell, et al.
You haven't even begun to see how bad it can get, you are just getting a taste of the insufferable conditions a public school teacher has to struggle against in today's public schools.
And I left teaching BEFORE No Child's Behind Left.
Kathleen Perez for Secretary of Education--Well said and nicely done! Having taught in an inner-city middle school I agree with you.
The republican party would love nothing more than for public education to fail and pave the way for more privatization. More education management organizations. Thats the essence of NCLB.
Teach the teachers to teach...
Shooby, dooby do....
Those who can't teach, are lawyers.
I am so happy I am a gamma. I wouldn't want to be an alpha. They have to work so much harder and do so much more. Life is easier as a gamma...
sound familiar?
" the question of the next generation will not be one of liberating the masses, but rather one of making them love their servitude." 1931
This is all by plan. The less "education" the student gets the more helpless and dependent the individual.
The ruling elite does not want individuals serious about their own lives, and social responsibilities or able to exercise "critical" thinking on subjects of importance to free citizens.
The ruling elite has succeeded.
Teaching is best left to those who are unwilling to pay for it.
LA is lost. Forget it. Go somewhere else; find another muse. Bureaucracy rules. See ya, America, you had a good run.
Thank you so much for your article. I just graduated from Oberlin College and I am going through the same frustrating ordeal trying to get a job teaching in LA. I am equally annoyed with this ridiculous process! Thank you for exposing it in your article.
madrone-
that's the point, isn't it? the system is BROKEN. for the kids and for anyone who would want to teach that ISN'T the system.
Let's see. You are trying to become a teacher without actually getting a teaching degree, right? You have a BA. Why not get the real education classes?
Or do you just want us to all be so grateful you want to teach that you won't have to do what the rest of the teachers in K-12 need to do?
Your students have to go through the system, why not you?
Don;y like the pay? Don't teach. Its a calling - like the seminary.
Quality Time - Here is a smack upside your narrow little head!
ZPF-
I hear what you are saying.. but I can attest from personal experience teaching in rural poverty areas of VT, that many of those disengaged students.. have more guts and determination than the ones who get A's. they arent the prized students.. aren't treasured and espoused- but still they show up every day, knowing the reward of attention and credit will not go to them. but still they show up. I credit that to more courage and not losing hope than any student getting A's and the adoration of teachers.
I have used a middle school model, with clear rubrics and absolutely putting success/failure into the hands of the students. yes you can revise this as many times as you want. Here are the mistakes. What mattered to me, was- not did they get it right the first time, and being " punished" with a bad grade when they didn't.. but.. the last time I see their face, leave the door.. have they gotten it? that is when/where/how it counts. You would be AMAZED at the number of students who engage and choose to try when they learn that success is in their hands alone, and that there is someone showing them how to improve.
many of those students- the not-3 dozen.. are genuinely smart. they are disengaged, have quit at the heart level. They have long learned that this is a game that they have to play, but they don't like. The truly gifted quit at an even deeper level, as it isn't even one they are interested in winning.
If these students didn't want to be reached.. they wouldn't still be giving teachers a chance, every day.. another chance to realize.. here I am. Can you find me? It is not the role of the student to meet the teacher on THEIR safe comfortable ground. It is the job of the teacher to FIND the student's ground and help them broaden that base. Teach them to question, to think. not to give them correct answers; life is far more complex than that.
I can almost guarantee that had I been sitting in your class, I would have gone through the year unremarked.upper middle class, a lazy B, disengaged, quiet, causing no trouble. turns out I have an IQ ( and let's not even open that socially biased can of worms!!!! )that is off the charts. I quit HS 3 times. One day, I just wasn't there anymore. most students aren't motivated by the things that motivate teachers.. aren't interested.. the WAY they think and process isn't the same, so it is like they are in a room where someone is speaking a different language... they sort of understand the language.. but don't really get the point
That is what the people who teach the teachers need to grasp.. like our political system.. the educational system is in dire need of overhaul.. and I don't mean NCLB.
None of this surprises me at all. Even after certification is obtained in some states, the courses and test work to determine "high qualification" continues unabated at additional time and personal expense that is uncompensated. None of this has anything to do with quality teaching, but it does have everything to do with making sure that people who couldn't do the work of teaching if it swam up and bit them in the behind have steady employment as bureaucrats and "education consultants".
Real teaching is done a day at a time, with an eye on the students in front of you and a willingness to adjust and personalize curriculum as needs dictate. At a very concrete level,it means that both public and private sector classrooms have to be much smaller. But none of these questions are going to be addressed by the current regime, which everywhere is more about opening up a market so that the same people who wrecked public transportation, public housing, and public health can do the job on public education. That's what all this is about, and I defy anyone to prove otherwise.
TeriD - Thanks so much for your posts.
I taught for over 8 years at a Private Technical College. Another name for a money making machine for its share holders and Diploma mill.
Many of the students I got were simply there to get the piece of paper. When a place like that has a high attrition rate, you know our populace is just comfortable talking about racing cars and Wrestling. That is what is cool.
The problems in academics are deep. Foremost is the classroom. Not only is what TeriD saying true about it, but if you are a sincere teacher, then the biggest problem you often face is the disparity in the students, and the politics of every administration. In eight years of teaching eight-ten hours in the classroom A DAY, I found a dozen truly smart students, and three dozen sincere ones. And I think there is a 100% overlap.
longing for sanity-
yep, youre pretty much on target there..
although I don't know if the system is eyeing higher ed.. r if is an evolutionary thing.. example.. what is the deal these days with attendance being mandatory in college? When I was there, you went or you didn't. It was your money and your choice ( rather than mandated education).. if you didn't go, and didn't get the material from someone.. well.. you failed. it was very simple.
College is very much beginning to resemble the HS of the last generation. And degrees are being " earned" which baffle me. Resort management? a degree? surely a business degree or some other relevant program, whilst working in a resort during the summers and breaks.. would be much more practical and academic. Outdoor rec major- to be an outward bound leader...? no, our colleges are changing drastically.. as is our culture. I am not sure which parts are the good parts and which are the scary ones...
but the times... they are a changin'
as a former (and not long term) teacher with an M.Ed.-
I can assure you that almost no teachers really know things like a modal verb tense. I would have to check that myself, to be sure.
What no one seems to understand is that our school system is NOT about learning. It is essentially about teaching control, conformity, and consumerism. Initially school evolved to assure a person an 8th grade level of education, whence they would get a job working on the line: a job they would have for 20 years. Education provided those basic skills that they would need to get through life.
If anyone would like an additional perspective on the role of education- try reading " My Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn, a profoundly insightful book, as is its predecessor, Ishmael.
Now- back to the topic of education. If you perceive education as a social indoctrination- that is little in comparison to the indoctrination of those who would teach the teachers.. the system by which one becomes an ordained indoctrinator.
By nature, ( briggs meyer?)the personality type of the person who is an educator, is one who likes to be in control. My own personal belief is that they also like to feel smart by being around those less informed than they are; in this way they are least likely to get challenged. Contrary to what my own belief was upon the beginning or my program... teachers are NOT the smartest kids in the class. This then fits into the previous comment neatly. In fact, the best and brightest of our country- the truly gifted- are FAR more likely to be a drug addict, a drop-out, or dead ( suicide rate peaks at age 15 for gifted kids; and is the highest of all the social demographic groups, higher even than the gay population).
so- the nature of those who will teach the teachers- they ( mostly, and there are exceptions, but we are talking about the nature of the system, so I am speaking broadly).. the nature of those who teach the teachers are even more rigid in their learning styles and control. These are college professors.. not altruists... with college-professor egos.
As children are in the younger grades, the range of learning styles addressed is much broader, and there is a little to go around so that many children feel connected (word?). although it is still the predominant that will be made to feel as though they are the smarter ones- linear reading, and math computation. As they go through the system.. that gets more and more learning styles get weeded out. This is because the teachers who teach.. teach to their own modality/ strength. By HS it is all about writing papers and taking tests- which is nothing more than " tell me what I want to hear" and " play the right answer game".. something at which the A-seeker excels. The A-seeker does not want complex questions with difficult, unresolvable answers. these students exemplify the teacher and the system perpetuates itself.
So- looking at this " system".. is it hard to imagine that the system makes it that difficult to " get in".. It want to assure itself that whomever is allowed entrance will be loyal to the indoctrination it is perpetuating. I suppose that anthropologically speaking it is like hazing pledges.
if it were myself, I would suggest looking into a " peer review" approach to licensure. I believe many states offer this. It is the alternative route to licensure for teachers who have not gone through a college/ accredited teaching program. Alterntive, opt for a year in a private school; they are not as demanding, and it is the chance to get your credentials organized. Alternative to that.. I would suggest teaching at a community college.. you will find the requirements easier there, the hours more flexible.. and you will be doing just as much good there as in a HS setting. Trust me.. we are not graduating our kids with a literacy proficiency. I know someone who was teaching college in VT, and they were testing incoming freshman to find out who would need to go into remedial English.!!!!! And having taught HS English I can attest to many of the things I was coerced into passing because the student was on an IEP with a fierce parent who would contest any failing grade.
if the writer follows this and has any questions, I am happy to offer assistance.
The problem is that education seriously needs reform. But the people in charge of reforming it are the people who screwed it up to begin with. The scary thing, for those of us in higher ed., especially at the less prestigious level without protection(eg. commuter schools), is that as the people who screwed up k-12 education finish that off,they have been turning their sights on us........
ruthru [August 3rd, 2008 2:10 pm], good points and, in my experience, most politicians have only a passing knowledge, if any at all, of the Constitution and US history. It's frightening how ignorant and out-of-touch are many members of both major parties and the national media.
I think the larger point here is that the neocons are intentionally making it more difficult to be a teacher, meaning fewer teachers and, consequently, public schools in poorer neighborhoods will have to close their doors, resulting in a larger pool of ignorant and easily manipulated voters and workers, willing to settle for whatever low-paying scut work is handed to them. Those who get out of line due to hopelessness and frustration can be crammed into a jail and forgotten. Perfect for the global corporatist plutocracy that currently runs our government and it turning us into a third world nation.
It's interesting that Walmart and other 'American' companies are already setting up shop in the next exploitable consumer markets -- China and India, while good jobs, and disposable income, disappear in the US. It's an admission that they realize the US economy is collapsing and most of us will be unable to buy even their cheap dross anymore. The Great Depression will look like a bathtub overflow compared to the economic tsunami that awaits us. Many places, with a decimated tax base, will not even be able to afford public education in the future.
We can only hope another FDR will come along to save us from the Milton Friedman 'free trade at any cost' neocons before we're completely in the tank. Is it Obama? I certainly hope so. It's definitely not McCain.
Bryn Mawr, that's up around the "Presumptuos" part of my wood. This is why, iwarrior, she could manage to attain a PHD. People die with their loans these days, a little wrangling about the system that can be done. Alas, a full time part-time student who may manage to know a little of everything and much about nuttin'.
You are overqualified for the job and need to approved by a less qualified flunky to get the job.
My suggestion from experience is to answer the questions by the book or you will fail!
A voice apart: '...one of those little things that irks' is incorrect. One irks, but things irk. There are things that irk me, too, and this is one of them.
Ellie...
We admire your stamina and determination. My wife has been teaching for over 25 years and has reached the point where she would quit tomorrow if we could afford the medical insurance.
You have outlined many of the hardships and difficulties involved in teaching today, but there are some you have yet to encounter.
First of all, you have just scratched the surface of the CYA paperwork that is required of a teacher today.
Even worse, in my wife's school district, the bleeding-heart social workers and Dr. Spockies have gained control of the administration, so there can be NO DISCIPLINE of any kind allowed in the classroom... no extra assignments, no staying after school, no writing "I will not stomp on Suzie's head again" on the blackboard 100 times because of the "If you force a kid to write on the blackboard they will grow up to hate writing" theory.
The combination of parents in denial and an overabundance of greedy lawyers have made it next to impossible to utilize any form of discipline in the public schools and without discipline you have chaos.
Best of luck to you anyway!
It has long been known that an uneducated or undereducated citizenry is easier to control because the people do not believe that their "leaders" will lie to them -- such as has Bush and Co.
Formal education is nice but one can educate themselves by reading world literature and history (and now the independent internet news sources too).
Some of her points seem valid, but she seems to not be able to put together a tight explanation of what's wrong with the overall process, and that's too bad because it does seem to need work.
She made the following statement and acted like it was part of the problem, when in fact, it appeared to be pointing out areas she needed work, but the rest of her paragraph acted like it was just more busy work and her tone is very dismissive:
> After taking the CBEST, I still had not proved "subject matter competence."
It may be that the evaluation process is lacking, but she doesn't ever admit she's really lacking in anything, so her ability to analyze the process logically worries me.
Wow...I couldn't agree more with Ellie Herman's comments here. It's just ridiculous how much excessive bureaucracy there is for becoming a teacher--on top of the shit pay. It's quite ironic and tragic when you consider how much more complex life is becoming: the onward race of technology, computer programming, science, medicine, engineering, etc. We live in an incredibly complex world, and what do we pay teachers? SHIT wages! Yet we expect children to succeed! It's easy to see why the USA is falling behind other countries in learning and achievement. What a fucked up mess!
What the author is describing is the political persecution of anyone wishing to teach without a degree in education.
This is nothing more or less than a jobs program for the education faculty at various universities--that's why if the author ever does start teaching she will find that most of her colleagues are less intelligent and have far less flexibily adapting to the increasingly difficult job of public school teacher.
If you are an elite whose interest is in killing off public education so "the little people" will know and stay in their place, this is how you do it--find some allies in the field and grind down the remainder with byzantine regulation and requirements.
Try the practice CSET test for yourselves:
http://www.cset.nesinc.com/PDFs/CS_106items.pdf
See if Bush the Lesser could answer all the questions, or even your McSame.
I am going to try it out and I hope that it covers one of my pet grammatical peeves - using the word "that" when speaking about a person or people instead of "who." IE: "Those that cannot speak properly should not be made president." Correct: "Those who cannot speak properly should not be made president."
Just one of those little things that irks one in life.
"writing about my former state of ignorance felt deeply sinister, like some kind of forced confession by a totalitarian state"
You're starting to catch on. They're not testing your english skills, rather they want to know if you have the mettle for total submission and mental bondage. After all, that's what the "school system" preaches.
Sounds like its time to get out (of the Country, that is)if possible.
so what's being said is, when we lose our jobs, we won't even be able to get work as teachers for all those children out there who want to enter the market? to "give back" to our communities, and all that high minded sounding stuff?
what are we to do????
"...and a burning desire to make $39,788 a year (the LAUSD starting pay scale for interns)."
That's a good bit more than I pull down a year. The cost of living must be bad there.
"One of the notorious disgraces of our public school system is the way the best teachers are funneled into schools serving high-income students, while children from low-income families are often stuck with far less-qualified teachers."
It's all a part of the class war. I experienced it too.
One thing that always got me is how most of the teachers in my urban high school were suburbanites. The teachers never seemed to want to live in the very districts they worked.
Oh but they loved the kids and wanted to make a difference. Yeah right.
ruthru sez about politicians...
"They should all have to have doctorates (considering how far gone the state of affairs) in their field..."
Then you'd be ensuring that most of them would still be affluent white folks.
How many people can afford to buy a PHD anymore?
I suppose that a person could volunteer to teach (mentoring) without toeing the Neo-Con's NCLB party line. As for warehousing of students; I know a student that skipped classes, read every book in the high school library and only showed up to 'ace' the exams. Gold is where you find it.
While I can sympathize with the general point of the article I think it's a bit of a strech to "defy most PhDs" to answer questions like "What's a modal verb?" or "What's a grapheme?". It seems to me that you'd have to know that in order to teach English. I know from experience that it's at least very useful to know these answers when teaching German.
Terrific post by ruthru (2:10). - In your first sentence, you took the words right out of my mouth (so to speak).
Your 2nd para is also terrific. That idea hadn't even occurred to me at all, but I certainly agree with it.
Teaching in the U.S. is not a profession. It is an over-paid form of baby sitting.
Consider the fact that the thing sitting in the White House at present couldn't pass a single one of those tests of accountability.
Politicians must be accountable. Why aren't they required to prove their competence before entering office? They should all have to have doctorates (considering how far gone the state of affairs) in their field and prove that they were involved in several years of activism for civil rights, environment, labor, and peace movements.
There's no accountability at the top.
Wow! Sounds like a way to jump-start burnout before the actual teaching even begins!
And now the governor wants to pay them minimum wage.
And the Great White Father in Washington wants to bail out the mortgage industry.