Debate
Should second-career new teachers be required to take methods courses before starting work?

YES
ANGELA DUNMORE has taught English for 12 years and was a special education teacher for five. She is now at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes, Delaware, and has also worked in Pennsylvania and California. She is a National Board Certified teacher.

Teaching is partly art and partly science. The art is in knowing which student will best learn with which teaching method. The science is knowing how to use the various tools and methods well.

The science is traditionally taught in methods classes. With-out that knowledge, one cannot be an effective teacher. Even if a person had a successful career in another field, it's highly unlikely that he or she knows how to impart information, or to guide learners to understand it.

Once we are in the classroom, we often look back and regard the methods courses we took as useless. But these classes give us the framework for understanding the on-the-job training we get later.

Perhaps methods classes need to be revitalized, but let's not lose what they do right just because they don't meet all of our needs.

Anyone who wants to teach in a K-12 school should also have to take a course in classroom management. It takes particular skills to keep a classroom full of children or adolescents quiet, receptive, and on-task.

I have watched two people enter teaching after another career. One was a retired military man--you'd think he would know how to keep order. The problem was, he kept too strict an order. Students were so intimidated that they dared not speak out when they didn't understand the material. They went through weeks of not understanding what the man was trying to get them to learn.

Imagine the frustration of both teacher and students at the end of that time. He was actually accused of putting students in a closed closet to stop the acting out behaviors he was getting!

Students did not feel safe enough to take risks. They did not try to answer questions unless they were sure of the answer.

How many new and innovative ideas died in that classroom?

Students can have insights into our content areas that we may never have imagined. If we don't have the skills to involve them in learning, and give them the opportunity to speak even when they are not sure of their ideas, we may never discover those insights.

The other teacher was brilliant in her subject area. She taught the most interesting and up-to-date information. The problem was, she didn't break it down into words and segments that students of that age could comprehend. She was teaching over their heads.

Also, she didn't know how to discipline students. They soon took over the classroom. They were yelling to each other, walking around the room, and throwing things to each other.

This teacher was skilled in her content area. If she had learned teaching methods too, she would have been a dynamite teacher.

Both of these teachers were helped by their peers and by taking classes in methods and management at their local teacher's colleges.

I watched them go from being frustrated, harried people to gifted teachers over a period of a year or two.

We need to make sure that every teacher in every classroom in this nation learns the skills of teaching.

NO
MONICA JENKINS-MOORE has worked in Shreveport, Louisiana, for 13 years as a high school teacher, guidance counselor, and now as assistant principal at Linwood Middle School. She is a past president of the Caddo Association of Educators.

Until four years ago, I was against people entering teaching without first taking methods courses. I came from a traditional program: I majored in education in college and took courses in methods, history of education, child development, and classroom management.

I confess that I often looked down on individuals who become teachers by simply having a de-gree and passing PRAXIS exams. I felt it cheapened our profession for someone to take the express route, and that it gave the public the impression that if you can't do anything else, try teaching.

Then I had the opportunity to work with two people who took this alternative route. Mrs. C and Mr. H had degrees in other fields (English and biology) but decided they wanted to teach. They got temporary certificates and had to take methods courses each year as they worked toward certification.

They taught me that teaching, like preaching, is truly a calling.

Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. But if you demonstrate a love and respect for children, in-depth knowledge of your subject, a willingness to listen and learn, professionalism, and a commitment to be firm, fair, and consistent with children, I am more than willing to provide collegial support to you as a fellow educator.

I saw all these traits in Mrs. C and Mr. H in their first year.

It was a hard, stressful year for them. They worked overtime planning lessons. They asked for help, observed veteran teachers, went through new teacher assistance and assessment, and took methods courses at night.

But they both shared with me that it was also a rewarding year professionally and personally. Their only regret was that they did not become teachers sooner.

Lowering the performance standard for teachers is not acceptable. Anyone who is not up to standard does not belong in the classroom. But Mrs. C and Mr. H faced the same observations and assessments as all teachers, and must continue to develop professionally throughout their careers. Because of their limited background in education, they started out having to play catch up.

But Mrs. C and Mr. H both went on to become awarding-winning teachers.

Currently, I am working with several more teachers who started teaching without first taking methods courses.

And honestly, how many of us who went through the traditional programs had methods courses that were really of use once we become classroom teachers? I know that universities are trying to make methods classes worthwhile and meaningful, but most of them are not there yet.

In an ideal world, I would like all educators to follow the traditional path, but the teacher shortage must be addressed.

Sometimes, we forget to follow the directions that we give children. We say to them, "Think outside of the box." "There may be more than one way of solving this problem. If you work as a team and support one another, anything is possible."

We cannot afford to put up bureaucratic roadblocks for the Mrs. Cs and Mr. Hs of this world. Our students deserve the very best.