This week the Senate has passed Senator Lu Ann Ridgeway’s bill to allow a path for professionals with non-education degrees to gain certification as High School teachers.
This is in an effort to respond to the epidemic of teacher shortages across the state, thouh the Senator says it will only make a small dent.
Another Senator and former teacher Joan Bray says this initiative thumbs its nose at teachers who get education degrees and go through the required teacher training programs, asking what would happen if one could become a lawyer with just a few weeks’ training. The bill will now go to the House for approval.
Se. Bray’s criticisms seem unfounded, and, as Ridgeway pointed out, lawyers are not tenured but part o a free market with competition that demands results and in which passing of a bar exam and law education is in effect required to compete.
This story last week gives a prime example of the kind of teachers this legislation will bring in—the kind of teachers who can become a teacher of the year! Teaching does not offer a very competitive salary for professionals who have experience with math, English, science and journalism, so it makes sense to offer them a way to break into the field without the constraints of obtaining another degree, especially when we are so much in need of teachers.
I once had a job where students got an admissions discount, and when asked, many replied “I’m a student of life, does that count?” I heard it so many times, in fact, that it was all I could do not to roll my eyes. But for the teacher of the year, Jason Dinwiddie, his journalism experience was something he could share with students and he had put in “the time” in school and in the field. The other component of a great teacher is, of course, their desire to connect with students and help them learn. I wonder how many other teachers of the year are out there, who will take the opportunity this legislation offers and how many students’ lives will be touched.
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