Blog Post #14 Teaching Can Be a Profession

Problems:

1.       Programs do not prepare the teachers to teach math

2.       Teachers are not prepared properly to teach reading

3.       Seniority makes it hard to remove teacher whether they are ineffective or not performing well.

4.       Teachers get paid the same regardless of their performance

Solutions:

1.       Better course work should be made to better prepare students

2.       Professionalize teaching so the best are picked

3.       Teachers would have to make specialized exams

4.       Teachers establish a own board to police profession

 

In Teaching Can Be a Profession by Joel Klein, he lists out many problems with how teaching is perceived.  I don’t believe that teachers are prepared enough to teach math and reading. I agree with creating better course work in order to better prepare the students to teach. If a teacher cannot effectively teach math or reading then the students are affected because they do not learn what they need to learn. Seniority also is a huge problem because there are several teachers that are not effective nor do they really care however they have been there for a long time. Having teachers complete a standardized test like doctors do can potentially ‘weed out’ teachers. Whether or not a teacher has receives a raise should depend on the teachers’ performance and effectiveness deemed by a teaching board.  There are teachers that perform better than others and put forth more effort, but don’t get paid what they really should. Teachers that put forth the effort and show commitment are the ones that should be receiving raises.

There are several problems with the teaching program, such as who can get in, seniority overriding everything else, and salary. These issues have to be address but many people turn a blind eye toward it because they don’t want to put money into education. There are many effective teachers that are leaving the teaching profession because they are not paid enough for what they do. I believe the community has to put education at the top of the list because otherwise our children will suffer.