Question:
Perhaps we should apply some
standards of certification to those who minister
to their minds just as we do to those who
minister to their bodies.
Perhaps we should. I don't know. But if we do,
those tests should be meaningful and should
be based on what we know is necessary. And I'm
not convinced that we know what is necessary.
The most important skills I had to use as a
teacher were not the skills I learned in college,
certainly. Perhaps the same is true for you? Perhaps not.
But I know it is true for some physicians.
Answer:
-... there are many things that go into making
a good educator, or a good physician. That
does not imply that a general competence is
not *one* of them.
It's fine to claim that one should have
specialty exams for teachers instead of
or in addition to general exams. What
you have not shown, other than by strident
claim, is that basic skills in reading,
writing, and arithmetic are *not* important.
If they are important, then it is not
inappropriate to test for them. Your claim
that there does not exist a general knowledge
competency which all teachers should have is
tantamount to claiming that it doesn't matter
if a math teacher cannot form a complete sentence
or an English teacher cannot count behond his
or her fingers and toes. In fact, a math
teacher must have some communication skills,
and an English teacher must have some
math skills.
- There are only two ways to find out how good
the instruction by any one individual, or one university is. Someone
knowledgable in the field being evaluated and expert in teacher
evaluation can sit in the courses taught within a particular college,
like mathermatics, or the knowledge of the students can be tested. Your
assertion that teachers take watered down courses doesn't hold true here
in Texas, however. It isn't true here and most other places I am aware
of. Perhaps it is at Purdue, I don't know since I have never been to
any of the campuses of that university. I do know this, that is what
your posts make the situation at Purdue seem like! I'm not sure that is
the image of your university you really wish to present to the e-world
