Going back to college for a teaching certificate takes nearly 2 years and college tuition has skyrocketed. Alternative certification programs require a certain grade point average no matter how long ago you graduated from college. Transferable skills are considered irrelevant because you can teach only the subject of your major. Even teaching experience outside the public school system means nothing.

Alternative certification requirements are confusing, websites are not user friendly, information about certification was written by bureaucrats instead of recruiters, and alternative certification programs that are billed as personalized and fast track are neither.

Meanwhile, certification tests are very difficult to pass and are no reflection of skill, aptitude, or attitude.

But organizations like Recruiting New Teachers and Teach for America keep cranking out those slick TV ads and slick brochures invoking noble ideas through catchy slogans. Many nights, you can hardly get through an hour of TV on any major network without seeing one of the those ads. Those ads and those brochures don’t mention the dirty little secrets of the teacher recruitment movement.

Those who make it through the gauntlet of certification face low pay, inordinate regulation, excessive paperwork, dubious evaluation procedures, and accountability for situations beyond their control.

They also have to make everybody happy. Executive, legislative, and judicial branches of federal, state, and local governments. Unions. Parents. They have to answer to consultants, researchers, activists, journalists. Beginning in the 90′s, they started tailoring to CEOs.

Because of similar nonsense, I couldn’t break into the teaching profession as a tutor, substitute teacher, teaching assistant, or even curriculum developer.

How others deal with all this, I don’t know. I finally fled overseas, where my college degree was enough to get me into the classroom.

A major problem is this “no child left behind” nonsense. It makes nice political rhetoric for TV sound bites, but it belies reality. Some students will get left behind if we are to have a reasonably well educated majority. That’s too bad, but it’s also the reality. Throwing gobs of money at the problem will not make the problem go away.

To anyone who disagrees with me, I encourage you to become a substitute teacher and see just how bad things are for yourself. In California, it doesn’t take much — get a bachelor’s degree (in anything from anywhere), take the CBEST test (which ought to be the high school exit exam), get fingerprinted to insure you’re not a pervert, pee in a bottle to make sure you are not a dope fiend. That’s it. Good luck. I lasted 2 weeks. At least I made back enough money to pay for the costs of the tests/fingerprinting, which you (the sub) have to pay for. I’d have to say being a teacher in California is the *worst* job I ever had. No wonder the average life span of a regular teacher as a teacher is now just 5 years.

To parents, I say grades K-6 are probably OK in California public schools, but if you can afford it, put your 7-12th grader in a private school that enforces discipline and won’t tolerate crap from students. If your child gets kicked out of private school, recognize that it is probably your child that is at fault, and your child is part of the 1/3 of students in public schools that are destroying the educational system in this country. Deal with it.

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/transitionteach/2004abstracts/fl.html