Blog Post #14

For this post, I read Joel Klein's Teaching Our Children Can Be A Profession. In this article, Joel talks about the problems associated with teaching and solutions to those problems. He would like teaching to be professionalized like other professions such as law and medicine.

• The first problem: Most teachers get hired just by having a degree
• The solution to this problem: To do what other successful countries are doing and recruit from top third of graduates

I agree with this solution to recruit from the top third of graduates. Recruit those who really want to teach, and have shown through evaluations that they deserve to be teachers. Reward those who took getting their degree seriously, and actually wanting to teach. Sometimes you have people who just pick teaching because they feel like its an easy profession to make an income. Let's get rid of those people and make teacher a tough profession to get into. That way those who really are passionate about teaching will take full advantage of the opportunity.

• The next problem: Seniority (teachers with more years of experience will be chosen over first year or teachers with less experience at all times)
• The solution to this problem; Professionalize teaching and treat all teachers no matter the tenure as equals

I agree and disagree with this solution. I agree that all teachers should be treated equally no matter what. This will drive and motivate teachers to go beyond their limits to achieve success. Teachers shouldn't be judged by how much time they have or haven't been teaching, but I do think for certain situations seniority can be used.

• The last problem: Some teachers do not treat their job as a profession
• The solution to this problem: Teachers creating their own board to police the profession, creating their own standards, creating their own mandate for inept teachers, as well as promotions based on specialty exams

I agree with this statement. I think teachers creating their own board to police the profession is a good  idea because teachers know what they want and expect from this profession. I think this is part of what is wrong with teaching now. So many people outside of teaching are telling teachers what they should be doing when they have no clue. A board where past and future who have been through the trenches and understand the profession can create standards and guidelines. Just like law and medicine professions have oaths, I think there should be one as well for the official entry into the teaching professionalism. 

In conclusion, I am all for Joel Klein's idea of professionalizing education. This NEEDS to be done. Teachers should have standards and duties in the sames way that lawyers have model rules of professional conduct. Teaching must become a profession that will be known for qualifications and hard work and not just based on someone having a degree. We must pick the best qualified people to teach the future generations. Reading this article made me realize just how much teaching is unappreciated in a way. It also made me realize just hard I shall continue to work to earn my degree.