On 3/19/08, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 11:28:07AM -0700, Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > >> This is generally most obvious in those classes taught by sports > >> coaches. > > > > Why do you think some politicians are talking about allowing math and > > science Ph.D's to teach high school w/o a teaching credential? > > The credential is a *hindrance* turning away some good people. > > Would you rather have a P.E. teacher with a credential running the algrebra > > class or a math Ph.D. w/ NO teaching credential? Your credential > > is become a problem even in the public schools! > > You will note that I picked on the *coaches*, not the PE teacher. The > PE teacher generally needs a nice chunk of extra stuff above and beyond > the standard teacher (physiology, chemistry, first aid, CPR). > > In this instance, the PE teacher. No question. > > The majority of PhD's are lousy teachers. Technical PhD's are some of > the lousiest because their communication skills tend to be the poorest > of all PhD's. > > The PE teacher has had college level math (trig+), physiology and > applied science, and student teaching. He also probably communicates a > boatload better to students at the level of an algebra class. He is > miles ahead of a standard PhD for the purpose of *teaching*. > > Move the class level to calculus, and you have a better argument. > > -a >
To be fair a large majority of these PhD types would be like my Dad when he was retired and wanted to contribute by teaching. However he didn't want to be THE teacher, rather he always wanted to be the teachers "math" aide or "science" aide or something along those lines where he could spend half days or 2-3 days a week enhancing the teacher who he recognized as the real "teaching" professional. He had to find other ways to contribute. rbw -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
