Perhaps it is. I don’t know diddly about MA, although I wonder how in ghod’s name they are able to fill their public school vacancies if every blessed person from math teacher to football coach is expected to have a master’s degree. People with master’s degrees can go out and find more profitable (and legislative-crap-free) work than teaching in public schools, as a rule. That’s nuts.
Then again, I live in Texas. Perhaps MA has many, many more highly educated professionals than we do that are willing to put up with the long hours, low pay, and general crapola, even if they could do a lot better. Like I said, I dunno anything about MA.
I do know that once or twice every decade, some state congressman decides to introduce legislation requiring that all public school teachers have master’s degrees… or Ph.D’s… or Master Teacher certificates… or be willing to work for free… or have super-powers… or be be canonized by the Catholic Church… or some damnfool thing or other. It’s their way of scoring points with the voters – “I tried to improve education in Texas, but the legislature wouldn’t let me!”
#4: This is going to be fun. New York State expects their teachers to not ONLY get their feet under them in a rocky, high-speed career, but they expect them to get on the stick and get MASTER’S DEGREES within three years of getting started?
New York is well and truly frog dup, folks. I honestly, simply cannot see that happening. Not unless NY pays their public school teachers truly insane amounts of money, by my standards.
#1-#3 aren’t unusual. You can go through an accredited educational study plan ending in student teaching, or you can get a degree in something else, then go through a certification curriculum ending in student teaching. That’s true most places I’m familiar with.
“Noncertified people who intend to get their certificates.” In Texas, this is called “Emergency Certification,” and you can get it by signing a pledge to go back and get your certification in X amount of time. They’re trying to do away with it, as part of the general drive to improve the school systems and outlaw stupidity and laziness in the human race.
PROS: It gets people into the loop, saves money (if you can hire ECs, you don’t have to jack your incentives and signing bonuses through the roof), takes care of teacher shortages in the short run, and lets prospective teachers know DAMN quick whether or not they’re suited to the profession.
CONS: A substantial portion of the ECs are incompetent, and very few have any training or experience. No penalties are provided for those who simply quit and don’t get certified. Some say that ECs drain away jobs that could and should have gone to certified teachers if the schools had simply tried a little harder or been willing to pay a little better.
As interesting of a story as this is . . . please remember this teacher has only been accused - he has not been convicted of anything. Not that a conviction in this country (the US) means much when a secret
Far be it from me to take up for this guy if the allegations are true - - but I can easily see some 16 year olds making this kind of thing up - - or taking his words out of context - - as he tried to break up the fight. I hope he was wearing bullet proof/puncture resistant and riot helmet while teaching in NYC public schools.
