With all the education reforms taking place in Louisiana, it’s clear that Governor Bobby Jindal wants to be a national leader in what is now called the “education reform” movement. Louisiana is leading the nation in the race to the bottom, having adopted every bad idea in ALEC’s catalogue of ways to tear up your public school system.
The Louisiana law was saluted by Indiana’s state superintendent Tony Bennett, head of a group of ultra-conservative state superintendents called Chiefs for Change, who share Jindal’s desire to get rid of public education if at all possible. Bennett said, “These student-centered reforms will completely transform Louisiana and its students,” by introducing a “marketplace of choices.” Part of that “marketplace of choices,” we now know, is letting students take tax dollars away from their public school and pay it to universities, private businesses, individual teachers, tutoring businesses, online companies, or anyone who sets himself up and says he is selling education.
Now we knew about the voucher program and we knew about the vast expansion of charters and for-profit online corporations. And we knew that teachers will be fired if the scores don’t go up in their classes every year.
But here is a new way to “reform” the schools. The state board of education, in its infinite wisdom, decided that teachers in charter schools don’t need to be certified. Understand that certification in Louisiana is not a real high bar to clear. A teacher need have only a college degree, a grade point average of 2.5 out of 4, and pass a national teachers’ exam.
But not for charter teachers! They don’t need certification. State board member Charles Roemer, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, insists that charter schools need to be free to “try new approaches.” One new approach is to have uncertified teachers.
But wait, Roemer has an even better idea! According to an article in the local press:
Roemer said the issue of teacher credentials should be left to individual charter schools.
Some who even lack an undergraduate degree could do a good job in the classroom, he said.
Roemer said charter schools should be given flexibility, then be held accountable for how students fare in the classroom.
Roemer knows a good bit about charter schools. His sister Caroline Roemer Shirley is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools.
Teachers in charter schools, if Mr. Roemer has his way, won’t even need to be college graduates. Now there is an innovation. Just hire anyone who wants to teach, without regard to qualifications, and see if they can raise test scores. Do they need a high school diploma? Why? Why not go for broke and wipe out all credentialism?
This is indeed new ground in the “education reform” movement.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The one thing you forgot to mention here is that the accountability measures for charters/non-public schools do not have to be made public until August 1 (school starts in some parishes as early as the first full week of August). Also, John White, BJ, and others have argued that the accountability measures being crafted should be less stringent than the public school accountability measures to remove the “red tape” public schools face. So, flexibility is being provided to these schools in who they can hire to lead instruction, but the “education reform coup” plans to hold them accountable by seeing if enough students can populate the school at the end of 4 years when it comes up for charter renewal, not by providing comparative accountability data demanded of public schools.
I don’t get it. The education bashers always talk about how easy it is to become a teacher.
“The Colleges of Education enroll students from the bottom third of their high school class.”
“Education students have lower SAT scores.”
“Teachers should have to take an exam every year to verify their competency in the subject matter.”
But I guess those same standards don’t apply to charter schools.
Just another union busting scheme designed to plummet Jindal to the upper echelons of the ultra conservative, free enterprise, competition-is-the-answer Republican party factions.
His ego and penchant for revenge have gone too far this time though – his own kind are rebelling against him and asking to sign the Recall Bobby Jindal Campaign Petition. Just ask Jeff Crouere, the conservative political radio commentator from New Orleans and former Deputy Chairman and Executive Direcetor of the Louisiana Republican Party who hosts WGSO’s Ringside Politics who said, “If department heads or undersecretaries cannot candidly testify before Senate and House committees without the threat of reprisal from the governor, the hearings become a farce.”
But then as you said Diane when you spoke before the Louisiana School Boards Association Annual Conference, Jindal is no Republican. He has INVITED federal intrusion into state education policymaking. While turning down matching funds for a sorely needed mono-rail line between our two largest urban centers, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, he determinedly forced multiple applications for Race to The Top which he eventually won that required the “transformational” closings of public schools to be replaced with charters and the firings of hundreds of teachers to be replaced with Teach for America personnel. His hand selected wholly unqualified new DOE Superintendent John White as the model for his new legislation that de-professionalizes teachers, and his value-added teacher evaluation bill will seal the deal by ensuring that no teacher gains tenure and every teacher will be the subject of dismissal and loss of certification and livelihood after ONE YEAR of lower than PREDICTED progress by his/her students on our pitifully designed high stakes standardized tests.
Yes, as Louisiana Breaks New Ground, we will be passing out shovels right and left and the “dirt” is already beginning to fly as lawsuits come rolling in. I am afraid the most damage will be done TO OUR CHILDREN as the next few years of progress will be lost in the mire of chaos, teacher turnover, school district bankruptcies and charter dysfunction.
The abolition of the requirement for certification proves that the corporate education movement is driven by ideology, not research-based science or a concern for the quality of education. These are Ayn Rand free-market ideologues who have what borders on a religious belief in the power of unregulated markets. Just as the free-marketers in the financial melt-down of 2008, they are guided by whatever moves them closer to complete deregulation, regardless of the social costs, failures, and even disasters.
This explains why one day Jindal is promising that every child has a right to the best teacher possible, and the next day he makes sure that is impossible.
Jindal–with his M.A. from Oxford, is not alone in his contradictory thinking on the value of higher education. Note that most of the leaders in TFA or their alums who are running charters finish their two-year TFA service and then zip off to graduate school for a Masters degree. As much as they disparage traditional university training in education for teachers, they apparently think the same training is a prerequisite for managing teacher programs or teaching staff.
I’m going to wait a year or so before I open my “school” in LA. All students will get a laptop, preloaded with educational software and spy ware. (just an added “profit center” for my profit) What I think will set my cyber school apart from others is the fact that my model will be based on peer teachers in the classroom or in this case online. That’s right. My teachers will still be in school! I’ll pay them a reasonable salary and provide them with a ‘free’ teaching internship. Its a win-win for everyone. Who knows maybe it will be a success.
On a more serious note, if this doesn’t show contempt for teachers and students then….I don’t know what does.
I like this idea. How about opening a school at a video arcade? They already have digital devices and a snack bar. We just need one teacher for all the arcades in the state–and they would only have to know how to replace motherboards. Instead of tuition, Jindal could give parents $8,500 in game tokens. We’ll call it “Gigabyte Academy.”
Innovations can just go too far. How a parent can think that a school with no or very limited resources, an inadequate facility that can’t pass the fire marshall’s inspection to hold classes and now, a faculty that could consist of no certified teachers is best for their child is beyond me. How a “leader” of a such a school can think they can provide a quality education is something I also don’t understand, except it’s a way to make money. How a state superintendent of education will allow this to happen is beyond comprehension. But, when they are trained by TFA , what more can you expect?, Louisiana is by far not a model of ed reform for any place else to follow..
It is a curious paradox that certain people value education for their children, but do not value education for the people who educate their children.
“Paradox” is of course the nice word for it.
You mentioned Tony Bennett…the news here in Indiana is that he changed the sign above his office from “Superintendent of Public Instruction” to “Superintendent of the Department of Education.”
Seems like he’s chosen to take the “public” out of education in Indiana.
Well, at least he’s being honest in this instance.
Here’s another example of name changing that is despicable, but honest: The office of teacher support (was) to The office of human capital (now). Schools are properties and teachers are cheap labor both of which are to be sold off and traded like portfolio management—-I concept I learned from Diane’s book (and best seller at amazon I read today), Death & Life.
Diane,
As bad as things are in Louisiana people are beginning to fight Jindal’s reforms.
St. Tammany Parish School board is joining 18 others to challenge the constitutionality of the voucher act.
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/06/st_tammany_is_likely_to_join_g.html
Jefferson Parish teachers are standing their ground for renewal of their union contract.
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/06/jefferson_parish_teachers_unio_3.html
These two links are to articles at NOLA.com, the Times Picayune website.
Penny
Not only unqualified teachers but hardcore religious right christian fundamentalist textbooks will be used by these supposed teachers so that state monies will flow for sectarian/religious purposes.
Fortunately here in MO the constitution contains some of the most restrictive language concerning government funding of religion and religious institutions/people. I bet that the religious right will try to put a referendum on the ballot to change that wording soon. They have to do that in order to get the funds flowing to the fundies.
That is part of what is so scary, is the texts the religious schools use. I mean it is one thing to use the Bible as a text, it was done for a long time, but to distort history and science so blatantly? There was a school in New Orleans before Katrina where a real teacher was working and she was told by her co-workers that only Republicans could be Christians! That is based on an idea put for the AFA, a hate group that is the parent of the Louisiana Family Forum, that public school teachers are not Christians because they don’t read the Bible or pray in school. At the time, both they and Focus on the Family were pushing conservative families to either home school or put their kids in “Christian academies” This was some years back, maybe 10, before charters became prominent and they may have actually been promised by Republicans that eventually they would get government money for their schools. I have seen some of ABEKA and it was pretty bad.
Well ACE, a Catholic group calls parochial schools the greatest tool for EVANGELISM the world has ever known. I will try again to get the exact quote, but it has been in Education Week.
This is a slap in the face to all of my colleagues who are currently “displaced” in Louisiana. Many of them are National Board Certified Teachers, have at least a master’s degree, and held teacher leader positions in their various schools. But now because the money is flowing to hire high-priced warm bodies to teach in charters, and to subsidize the Louisiana Student Scholarship Opportunity fund (vouchers), these teachers face a long hot summer of looking for new jobs.
I talked with one this morning, trying to make her believe that something would open up for her. But I’m afraid I wasn’t very convincing, because I’m not convinced. This is just evil.
Very, very evil!
Don’t believe that the money will go to the warm bodies. I don’t think there are any restrictions on how they spend it and religious schools and parochials are notorious for underpaying teachers.
Well, Bobby and Paul Pastorek a few years ago got on the news and said that a Masters degree and National Certification don’t assure higher test scores. Around the same time the head over the RSD in New Orleans said that experience didn’t matter, all while the New Orleans principals were hollering because their TFA teachers had no classroom management skills. (Remember when they spent money hiring additional security guards for the New Orleans schools instead of better teachers?) And shortly after that started a bigger push to hire more inexperienced teachers.
The problem I think is rooted in, besides the efforts to subsidize for-profits to start charters (assisting big business) is the fact that teachers tend to be moderate/liberal politically and are often Democrats. I started teaching in 1972 and observed that back that far. Special ed. tends to be on the liberal end.
I had an interesting and difficult experience when, along with some other displaced teachers, we tried to get a New Orleans charter after Katrina and were turned down. Prior to that, most of the groups that were applying were non-teacher groups including a group of nuns and some middle eastern people who represented a for-profit. None of the groups lead by teachers got charters that year, although the BESE guy complimented my section of the charter application. (Special ed, ESL and Homeless) Also when the first charters in New Orleans were forming, the ones in Algiers, they told the special ed people wanting jobs they did not plan to hire any special ed until they had special needs children (This is totally backwards because special ed parents won’t enroll their children, especially those with significant disabilities unless there is a teacher waiting for them—-preferably in the office with open arms to assure them their babies will be taken care of) and they seemed to be avoiding hiring New Orleans teachers, which included, waiting there, a coordinator. Then they “lost” the applications.
To summarize the whole charter movement has been a way to get rid of “liberals” in education in Louisiana. So why wouldn’t they hire someone with only a high school diploma?
Louisiana is going to have very few career teachers in a few years and the schools will be the most awful mess they have ever seen. If Bobby thinks it is hard to attract businesses now, just wait until the only thing most workers can do is make beds and wash dishes.
Hey, the bar is even lower than you think. When I worked, briefly, in EBR the teacher who wanted my class had not been able to pass the Praxis after 5 tries and claimed it was racist. I think her undergrad was a regular education degree. (Plus she had gotten in trouble the previous year when some MOIDs were left unsupervised on the bus while she took care of personal business on work time and they had sex.) Now how can an achievement test based on a body of knowledge a person has supposedly acquired while working on the M.Ed be racist? She had been over the class the previous year and realized how easy Community Based classes can be if you choose not to really do much teaching. Hiring me was an effort at bait and switch. They apparently had planned from the start to switch me to mild disabilities which I don’t teach, from severe/profound, which is my love and my gift. Then they found out I had to have a biopsy they went on and fired me—-Masters degree, working on an Ed.S, 27 years of experience 95% on the previous teachers exam, 3.87 graduate GPA, 3.67 undergrad.
Now this thing where Jindal is alienating his own allies is interesting and may actually lead to his downfall. That is what happened with Roy Barnes in Georgia. He alienated the teachers very similarly to Jindal, including the tenure issue, but he also alienated a very conservative group called “flaggers”. Roy was from Metro Atlanta. Therefore he knew how important the convention business was to Georgia, especially the metro area. There was a movement throughout the South to get the Confederate Battle Flag off the state flags or some major conventions (like the NAACP) were going to meet elsewhere. The City of Atlanta was already refusing to fly the state flag and some modifications had been made. Well, Roy knew it was in the best interest of the state to get rid of the battle flag and the flaggers wanted to keep it. So between the teachers and this VERY conservative group, Roy became a one-termer.
I think Jindal is biting off his nose just like Roy Barnes did although the people of Louisiana seem to be much more passive than Georgians. The enemies he is making in the legislature are the most conservative in the state. North Louisiana tends to lap him up. That is why the new voting districts, especially #1 look so weird. It was to dilute voting power from the blacker and more moderate parts of South Louisiana. Plus even conservatives don’t think people should be fired for disagreeing with the governor. But the fiscal hawk from Oil City lost his committee chair because he did not believe in saving the budget with one time money and also VOTED AGAINST SOME OF HIS EDUCATION BILL. I sent him an email suggesting he hold his nose and align with the Democrats to dispose of Jindal.
I think it would be great if a substantial number of conservative extremists sign the recall petitions. It might get the word to Jindal that he is eroding his own support and he will start acting a little less like a king. That is second best to getting rid of him by a long shot, but it might be the best that can be done—scare him into conformity.
Everyone posting comments thus far has been of the Chicken Little variety, and I suspect it’s because this is a marginal issue unless this affects your profession… Look, none of you would have voted for Jindal before he adopted any of these positions, so what does he stand to lose here by your being upset?
I’m a product of the Louisiana Public school system, and other than maybe as a jobs program for administration and teachers, it’s not all that great. It’s been a huge community and state cost for decades, and there seems to be no improvement there. So why not shake things up a bit? Why not try something a little more out of the box?
I hate to kill your golden cow, but education is not the only way to measure potential success in business, or in the classroom. Some of the most successful people I know don’t have college degrees, but they have a lot of people with college degrees working for them. Why is a college degree necessary to teach another person how to read, compute, or understand? What does a certification do for a teacher that makes them better able to help someone else understand them?
Luke,
You have a point there and Buddy Roemer agrees with you. Why is a college degree necessary to teach? Heck, for that matter, why do you need a high school degree? Why not let the kids teach each other!
As for shaking things up, Bobby Jindal is surely doing that. How about giving kids a voucher to go to a little church school that keeps failing its fire inspections? Probably those fire inspectors don’t know what they are doing so no reason to let a little thing like that keep kids from attending a school where they can learn how the earth was created in seven days. That will be a good start on their STEM education, don’t you think?
For that matter, who needs education anyway? Plenty of uneducated people have done well in the world. I can’t remember their names, but when I do, I will let you know.
Diane
Diane,
Irrational statements to prove a point are counterproductive to your argument. I know a lot of people on a personal level that have been quite successful with high school diplomas and less. Universally known people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates had no college degrees, while Dave Thomas, George Eastman, Peter Jennings, and Quentin Tarrantino didn’t even have high school diplomas and all were successful by any standard. No one is saying that education is not valuable. On the contrary, the heart of this discussion is that education is too valuable to continue doing things that are not generating more of a return in spite of the additional resources spent. No one is saying students should teach each other, but I bet you know people in your community that don’t have teaching certifications or even college degrees that are very motivational in nature and would make wonderful teachers.
From the standpoint of a teacher, I can guess how this would be frustrating, and maybe even belittling, and I understand your frustration in considering this. As a photographer, it bothers me to no end when a kid picks up a camera knowing nothing about the art and produces work better than many professional photographers with training, so I do understand. I’m forced to determine in that scenario that there are people with more talent than others in any industry, regardless of training and focus.
As a former athlete, I’d also suggest that most of the coaches I had in school and college didn’t care about their teaching certifications, though they were better teachers than many that did, but they had to have those certifications in order to coach. I would also suggest that there are people, like myself, that would have loved to teach, or coach, or impact tomorrows leaders, but we weren’t willing to sacrifice better financial well being just to do what we wanted to do.
Removing the certification process will allow those that pursued other early careers to take up teaching after finishing their first career, after making enough money to raise our families comfortably. I believe, and many others do too, that teaching is more about talent than education, and certification has nothing to contribute there.
Luke
I am getting more than a little tired of the “little return” attitude that puts the problems that students have learning on the teachers. The fact is that teachers have very little if any control over the schools, including curriculum, pace of lessons, materials, and how and when they teach. Then, in order to satisfy testing requirements, they are forced to waste more time teaching test taking skills in isolation from subject matter. Today they even have this crap called “scripted lessons” which the teacher is supposed to read and follow instead of make professional judgments about how to teach the students. One scripted reading program called “Direct Instruction” was used in New Orleans. When I saw it I was shocked. It was an almost identical repackaged version of “Distar” a program that failed in the early 1970s.
There are many factors in students’ lives that cause them to do poorly and disadvantaged students are the most likely ones not to do well, not because they are not as smart as advantaged students, but because they do not start at the same place. There are also factors that conservatives do not want to address that cause students to lag behind, such as malnutrition, parent absence because they work two minimum wage jobs, hygiene issues, inability to pay the utility bills because the rent is too high, needing glasses or hearing aids, forcing students to wear uniforms, sibling care starting as early as 3rd grade, abuse and neglect, foster care, homelessness, moving frequently, poor access to medical care, and lack of experiences outside their immediate community. We had kids in Atlanta who had never been to a grocery store and many when I taught in rural Alabama who started school never having seen a flush toilet. (Only one child in that last group had running water.) Teachers have no control over these although in special ed we always kept towels, washcloths, deodorant, sanitary pads, and soap available, made sure kids got their free lunches and kept extra food from home for them in our desks. We do the best we can to provide the best environment for learning as we can for our students. But it takes a teacher to know what the children need and to have A VISION OF WHERE SHE WANTS THEM TO GO. A real teacher is not discouraged by the problems her kids have. She knows they can get up those steps eventually even if she has to get behind and push them.
Yes, some people are successful without a college education. Most of them are either extremely brilliant, savants or very hard workers. Some, like Bill Gates is rumored to, have Aspergers, or act like they do and do a better job working with things and ideas than they do with people. But these are not the norm. Most uneducated people get stuck doing physical labor, food service, or maid work. Education enhances natural gifts and helps those who don’t have them learn the skills and perhaps acquire the professionalism and even the gift that teachers need to stay in the field more than 5 years, or even the 3 it takes to become a teacher following the education.
One last thought, teaching is a calling. It is not easy. It is very difficult. Why would someone want to become a teacher after they retire from another profession,especially if they were never trained to teach unless someone pushed them away from the field because it was not prestigious and they would never make gobs of money,but that was what they always wanted to do and selling computers and making good money at it was never anything but a job? Teaching is not an afterthought or a hobby.
And would a 65 year old who had never taught really want to spend 180 days per year with 35 nine-year olds? They are not strong enough to pick up the severe special ed kids so they would have to go to regular education with its huge classes and no paraprofessional or else do mild disabilities, which, in my opinion, is the hardest type of special education. And then there is learning all the technology, which is different in each system, and the paperwork. I can just see a retired person who is not the parent of a special needs child writing an IEP, running the meeting and making sure that everything is covered so the school can’t ban the child from assemblies or suspend him. I can’t see a not-teacher explain to the principal that this schizophrenic kid who is always in the office complaining that people are talking about him is highly intelligent and that is why he scored ADVANCED on the LEAP, not because the teacher cheated. (This happened to our intermediate EBD teacher in New Orleans.) Then we have to get the parents’ cooperation and also tell the principal that one thing he does not want to hear, “It’s in his IEP” That takes a real professional Certified! A teacher!
Luke, in previous generations education was not necessarily a criteria for success. Work was largely physical and you could pick up skills on he job or do whatever your father did. Teaching then, because there was less that had to be learned was sometimes manageable without a college degree and certification. In fact in my first year there was a teacher who had been grandfathered in when a college degree began to be required in Alabama. But now education has become a science as well as an art and a calling. I did not feel that I knew much until I got my Masters. But it was that way even in the 1960s and 70s when you took substantial number of “methods courses”—-classes that taught you how to teach. They are necessary and a teacher who has not had them and some good behavior management classes, well, you can tell. There are some who are “naturals” but they usually have teachers or possibly teaching pastors in their families. And even a natural musician or athlete learns a skill to build on natural talent. All those Kenyans who win footraces have been running all their lives.
Why is a degree necessary to teach a person to read, compute or understand? Because just because a person can read does not mean they have the skills to teach another person to read. I have seen such people in teaching positions fall flat on their faces. I have a retired teacher friend in New Orleans who went to Jefferson parish as a special ed. paraprofessional working with a Teach For America with a Master’s in Math. She kept calling me about two things. One was behavior management and the other was teaching subject matter to special needs children who were behind in their reading and couldn’t keep up in the inclusion classes. She would discretely pass it on to the teacher. I was special ed. She was regular ed, very intelligent, a health teacher from Massachusetts but she did not know special ed. and neither did he. And that is why you need degrees and certification. It teaches you how to teach. And if you don’t know how to teach a child and teach him wrong, you are liable to mess him up permanently.
I have a college degree from an accredited, private college. I went to school because I thought I wanted to go into medicine. Obviously I changed my mind. I realize that there are professions where an education should be required. Practicing law, medicine, CPA accountants, engineers, etc… But professions like small business, sales, transportation, warehousing, and teaching don’t seem to be knowledge based in my experience, and shouldn’t require a bs or ba from an accredited college, and I don’t believe it’s necessary for success.
An example in my own life, I have a college degree, and looking back, I’d much rather have the $70,000 spent and $200,000 in lost income I passed up to attend that school. My brother went to work at age 16, and would hardly be considered educated by any standard, yet owns his own company and makes 3 times as much as I do per
year.
Diligence, commitment, and hard work are required to be successful in any endeavor. A college degree doesn’t mean anyone will be more or less successful in their chosen field than anyone else.
So lonepinephotography: I kind of had your perspective as my children went through the public schools system and had some difficulties (nevermind that we went through an unpleasant divorce that regrettfully had a huge impact on all of us). In the thick of it with two in high school and one in junior high I was asked as a PTA volunteer to help a teacher who was having difficulties managing his class (Chinese, math teacher, huge cultural gap. . . . )
Long story short, I helped him all year, got a good picture of reality in the classroom but decided to be a teacher with my newfound singledom. Age 42 – 25 years experience working with diverse professions, two years previous college. Took three years full time for English/Journalism Ed. certification degree. Hired to teach gifted so had to continue with masters degree to keep the job. Later National Board CErtification. . . . Well I sure found out that teaching is more than knowing your stuff and being highly motivated.
Nope – your statements fall on deaf ears. Been there done that. While I agree there are those individuals who achieve their version of success (money?) without advanced formal education, they are not the norm. There may also be individuals who turn into good teachers learning in the trenches but they are not the norm. Fact is that training and education for ANY profession or skill contribute to the chances for success.
Luke, you just delivered an ultimate insult to teachers and showed how much you hate them. Instead of grouping teachers with other educated professionals, you listed them with the people who can learn on the job, and not really even the trades, but with people who just go straight out of high school and directly to Walmart—- sales, transportation, and warehousing not even plumbers, electricians, and mechanics!!! You remind me of a principal in Atlanta who, when upset with his faculty, would say, “Yall couldn’t do this if you worked for Delta Airlines”. I truly had to get him!
You reallly think there is no body of knowledge in Education? Let me share with you this. Education is a science and an art. It has more in common with medicine and law than with sales and warehousing. You have to know your stuff to teach successfully or you will screw your kids up! If a child is behind at age 10 he probably will NEVER catch up. If a boy child is behind in the 2nd grade he has a much higher likelihood of GOING TO PRISON AS AN ADULT than a boy who is on grade level. SECOND GRADE, A LITTLE BITTY KID. He can be permanently messed up by 7!!!!!! A whole generation of children grew up not being able to spell because they were not taught phonics. The idea at the time was that sight reading was preferable.
While this is true in regular education, it is even more true in special education. Special ed. is not only more technical in terms of keeping with the law because an IEP is a legal document that can be taken to court, but also in terms of the kids and their disabilities. For example, if a child is diagnosed as having Williams Syndrome he or she will love music and learn auditorily. Some become professional musicians. A good teacher will know this and teach the child through phonics and music and not become frustrated if she cannot button her clothes or tie her shoes because they have severe issues with spatial relationships. Those are characteristics of the syndrome. Student’s with Down Syndrome characteristically have trouble with math, have low muscle tone, and have to be checked out by a doctor before they can do tumbling activities because they sometimes have a problem with their neck and can easily be paralyzed. Kids with Cornelia de Lang usually abuse themselves, often have particular physical deformities (but not always) and are normally non-verbal as are those with Retts. So you start assistive communication early and the one with Retts will probably need a head pointer. A good special ed. teacher knows her disabilities and how to teach kids who have them. The body of knowledge is huge and the learning ongoing. A whole lot of stuff I did not learn until I got my Masters Degree. Then I learned some more working on an Ed.S.
The Republican leaders in Louisiana love to portray teachers as non-professionals or uneducated for one simple reason. That is MONEY. This state screamed when they were told they needed to get the salaries up to the Southeastern average. They whined, “What about Georgia?” because Georgia was paying close to the national average, thanks to Gov. Zell Miller, a teacher, raising the pay across the board by 15%. It was a campaign promise. Meanwhlie Catahoula Parish was starting teachers at $22,000 and even a Ph.D only netted around $45,000 in 2005. Now Bobby is trying to base teacher pay on performance and has cut the differential between simple Bachelor’s pay and that for teachers with Masters and National Certification so they can pay teachers less. ALL THE GREEDY REPUBLICANS ARE REALLY ABOUT IS MONEY AND THEY JUST DON’T WANT TO PAY TEACHERS AS PROFESSIONALS BECAUSE THEY KNOW WE ARE OUTSPOKEN AND OFTEN NOT CONSERVATIVE.
Twinkie1cat,
Absolutely well written. Luke is so typical of the people who have no clue about what teaching is, the knowledge required and the complexity of the job. The fact he is on this blog suggests that perhaps he is seeking information. I hope it is seeking information. He had advantages that so many of our students do not and reminds me of my high school students who had everything but motivation and a goal. It is very hard to see what is going on if your experience is so limited, I used to encourage them to go see the world because it will give them perspective.
Luke says: “Diligence, commitment, and hard work are required to be successful in any endeavor.”
That is what we all think when we don’t know any better. Most teachers have been doing that and so much more for years and we have been successful; given the resources and restrictions we have to work within! The charters and vouchers won’t have those. Luke needs to go work in one of our high risk, high poverty schools and see what he thinks. He sounds young and just needs more experience.
Thank you for the compliment. When I think about how much I learned getting my Masters and then being able to apply what I learned in the classroom, I realized how much of it is science. I have told new teachers who went to my church just a few simple tricks that improved their ability to work with students with disabilities, like the two autistic children that were placed in a regular second grade. I simply told her how to get autistic kids to respond to the most basic behavioral request, the most necessary, and often the most difficult for kids with autism: LOOK AT ME. And I am not even an autistic teacher. My thing is multihandicapped/severe/profound. A five minute lesson and this girl came back the next week smiling. She was bringing them to learning with simple requests that got their attention: “Look at me.” “Do this.” “Look at this.” Real simple. Real hard. This year I told a TFA who is teaching kids with autism and who seems to be family that getting hurt occasionally (physically) is part of being special ed. You protect yourself, but it comes with the territory.
I think that advantaged people, especially college students, need to spend some time in the public schools, especially in schools that have a lot of disadvantaged kids. It could be an internship or community service. And this includes those who are NOT planning to be teachers. It should especially include business majors and of course all who are planning careers in politics, government or public service. A week with a transitional program that teaches work skills to students with retardation could do a world of good toward getting jobs for people with disabilities, but time spent with any child could remind them of their own privileged condition just as people come back different when they go on church mission trips. But it would not just be so they could see the results of poverty, but so they could get to know the students and maybe their parents and come to realize they are people like themselves and get rid of the attitude that people are only poor because they are lazy. As for education students—internships every year starting as freshmen in increasing amounts and with increasing responsibilities and in a variety of settings. Prevents burnout and helps them find out if they REALLY want to be teachers.
But you need a license to sell flowers in Louisiana.