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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > May > 05 > Entry
What it takes to be a teacher
The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof stirred up a lot of discussions in the edusphere with his column last week arguing that teacher certification process hurt more than it helped.
Was Kristof essentially saying that anyone can teach or that it’s easy to be a teacher? Some bloggers thought so, although Eduwonk’s Andrew Rotherham argues that interpretation misses the point.
The column also prompted a few classroom reality check posts from real teachers who also blog. My favorite was this one by NYC Educator with the great headline — “The Nice Man Cometh.” Check it out.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Oldprof
May 6, 2006 8:09 PM | Link to this
Let’s face it, nobody is evaluated on a permanent record for failing to learn from an education reporter (NOT columnist. Dale Huffman and DL Stewart are columnists). But let’s look at the failure of the Teaching fellows program: one scholar followed three of them and all were disillusioned: “Choosing To Stay, Choosing To Leave: New York City Teaching Fellows after Two Years.” Costigan, Arthur T. Teacher Education Quarterly. v. 32 no2 (Spring 2005) p. 125-42. There was also that article in Modern Maturity around fall 2000 (don’t have the reference at hand) about a New York judge-turned-teacher who wondered why he’d been able to keep order in a courtroom but couldn’t in a classroom (duh, yer honor? absence of armed bailiffs, maybe?). Look, I acknowledge that teacher certification often fails—a comprehensive system of interning and mentoring would be better—but certification is WAY more reliable than slapdash innovations.By Dave
May 6, 2006 1:44 PM | Link to this
Scott, this comment isn’t aimed at you, but it should be noted that there are no minimum qualifications to be a columnist for any major media outlet.