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

YES
MICHAEL THOMAS heads the North Dakota Education Association Student Program and is studying for his master's at the University of North Dakota. He was working in cryptology on a Navy submarine when an off-duty activity, Special Olympics, got him hooked on teaching.

I think we do need to raise the bar for admission.

Currently, we are in quite a dilemma. We are experiencing a teacher shortage, and with the number of teachers looking toward retirement, it may only get worse.

Because of the shortage, school districts are hiring teachers who aren't necessarily qualified to teach, just to fill positions.

This hurts children. Children do not deserve a second-rate education simply because a school district couldn't find a qualified teacher.

Districts that hire unqualified teachers also contribute to the lack of respect for public schools.

Raising the bar for admission isn't a short-term solution for the teaching shortage. But it would send a message to the public indicating that education in America is a top priority. And that message would attract more capable people to teaching.

And that, in turn, could help address a major problem facing the teaching profession: low salaries. By raising the bar for admission, and consequently sending more qualified people into the classroom, we could make even stronger arguments for raising teacher salaries.

The effect would be cyclical--higher salaries would attract more people to teaching. More people would meet the higher bar we've set. That, in the long term, would address the teacher shortage--while ensuring that children get a first-rate education.

Many college students are obtaining education degrees but then going into other professions. These are students who did not really know what they wanted to do, so they chose teaching. They soon found out that they did not truly enjoy teaching and moved on. These students make a mockery out of teaching.

For example, many athletes choose teaching as their major as a cushion in case they don't make it to the next level in their sports. This way, they can still coach.

If they truly want to coach, that's great. Our kids need good role models, and inspirational coaches are good role models. But if they major in teaching because they don't know what else to do, and have no intention of ever using that degree, they're giving teachers a bad name.

At the university I attend, the minimum GPA for admission into the teaching program is a 2.5. Most athletes need this GPA level to remain eligible to play sports. By raising the bar, we could weed out some of these students and solidify the quality of teachers in America.

I believe that those who truly want to teach, will teach, despite low salaries and despite any requirements for acceptance into teaching programs. By raising the bar, we would simply rid our profession of students who do not have the intense desire to teach, and give our children the quality teachers they deserve.

NO
BARBARA S. HAWK has worked in teaching, educational research, and curriculum development. An elementary school teacher for 14 years, Hawk is currently on medical leave from Hohokam Middle School in Tucson, Arizona.

We need a wide range of people in teaching. We need high achievers and people who needed special education services as children. We need late bloomers who messed around in high school and found their purpose later. They may not all be good test takers or have the savvy to work the system for good grades.

What we need most are people who love learning, who think kids are interesting, who like to problem solve, and who think that figuring out how to help a child over a hurdle is a good way to spend your spare time for a week or so.

We need people who understand how hard it is for some students to learn. Many of us who learned to read easily and behaved well get frustrated when students can't grasp reading for the longest time, or act like hot-air balloons floating around our rooms, never sitting still.

Some of my students who were the most savvy about helping me teach, and who wanted to become teachers themselves, struggled with learning. I never said, "Well, you'll have to get good grades." I did say, "When you get ready to go to college, come find me and I will help you any way I can."

Think what A, a student of mine who did not really read until eighth grade, could contribute to our work with late bloomers. She wants to teach primary grades.

Fifteen minutes into the first day of school, M was "cleaning my desk," which had nothing in it. Think how he could help ADHD boys. I wish he wanted to teach.

Recently, I worked with a student teacher from a private college. Despite recent successes, she had been turned down by the teacher prep program at our state university due to a low GPA caused by her poor showing as a freshman and sophomore ten years earlier.

A few students challenged her. I had found the same students very hard to handle, and so had other experienced teachers.

But she found ways to motivate these students, and she did it by drawing on her own experiences from that earlier time when she, like them, didn't care much for school. When these students were learning to write mysteries, she wrote one, too, and she took the risk of inviting them into her writing process every step along the way.

I have a somewhat checkered social past. When parents learn that I understand divorce, remarriage, step-parenting, and long-term live-in relationships, we are better able to deal openly with factors affecting their child's learning.

We don't need to raise the bar for prospective teachers. We do need to help new teachers survive and thrive in their first few years. If someone wants to teach and is willing to work at learning how, I say let them in and give them all the support we can.

We have all kinds of kids. We need all kinds of teachers.