Dumbing down education

[cookderosa]

Maybe we should have teachers first get a degree in the field in which they desire to teach, then acquire a teaching certificate.

This. You're preaching to the choir on this one. I've said this since day 1 as well. In my opinion, the reason this is NOT the case, is because it promotes the myth that teachers have a specialized "teaching" skill that keeps us peons -who don't hold degrees in education- from being qualified to teach. It's an essential function to keep this myth alive, without it, people wouldn't support govt-based education as strongly. Before anyone accuses me of being paranoid, look at the hiring differences between public and private schools. Public schools require teachers with degrees in education and a license from the state- private schools do not. Furthermore, if you earn your degree in education, but then if you want to complete your student teaching outside of public school (like a Christian school) it won't qualify for state licensure. *I'm sure there are states where this isn't still true, especially with the rise of alternative entry, but it's still the norm*

I really, honestly don't think parents know that their teachers don't have degrees in the subjects they teach.

If you hold a PhD in physics, you're not qualified to teach physics. If you hold a master's of science in mathematics, you're not qualified to teach math to 3rd graders. If you are a Grammy award winner you are not qualified to teach music.... would anyone argue that any of those people wouldn't be worthy teachers if their heart was in teaching? They'd ALL be qualified to teach in college, but not children.

Teachers will argue that their coursework in education is important. It probably is. But in my opinion, a survey of teaching methods/evaluation courses could be a sequence completed within a major, not instead of a major. This is how medical schools bring in students- you can major in anything (literature) but by completing an 8-course sequence (pre med) and an entrance exam, you then apply to med school. There are no pre-med majors, it doesn't exist.

I'd like to see teachers earn degrees in their subject, and hold a teaching credential that is earned alongside of their subject. I can think of a dozen political reasons that will never happen.

*edit* one other quick thing I wanted to say. Frequently, people will ask a homeschool parent if they think they're "qualified" to teach their 4th grader "all those subjects." That question implies that the 4th grade teacher has more education in "all those subjects" than the average parent. If a parent holds any degree in which they've completed 60ish general education courses, then that parent absolutely has enough education. The parent -in the strictest sense- may not have training in classroom management or teaching methods, but since the parent isn't attempting to educate a group of children, it's unnecessary. Now, parents don't need a college degree to be a homeschooler, but I'm just pointing out that the assumption is usually that the teacher is MORE educated thus BECAUSE they have more education. Research shows all the time that more education of teachers is not relevant to the student's success. It's a tangled mess of myth and assumption; I'm glad it's not my problem to fix.