Blog Post #14: Teaching Can Be a Profession by Joel Klein

In this article by Joel Klein, he picks the number one thing he would have about education. He said it was not an easy question because there are so many things that need to be changed, but he would start with this: to professionalize teaching, making it well-respected like being a lawyer or doctor. Klein then goes on to discuss all the problems he see in education and why it isn't considered a well-respected profession.

Problems

1. Teachers need better training

2. Seniority distraction

Here is how Klein addresses these problems:

• Teachers need better academic training
• Only hire the top third of our graduates
• National teacher examination
• Supervised internship of from one to three years
•  Merit-based career ladders

I believe that teacher's do need better academic training. Joel Klein said that pretty much anyone with a degree can teach. Sadly this is true. If trained our future teachers better, they would have lasting affects on our children and future generations. 

When it comes to the selection process of hiring teachers, we should only be hiring the very best. We want our country to flourish, so we need our children to have the best education possible. If we only hired from the top third of the graduating class, it would help insure this. 

Furthermore, Albert Shanker proposed a national teacher examination. This would show schools who was best suited to teach and who should be hired. Other professions have entry exams like the one Shanker would incorporate. 

 Another idea Shanker had that Klein writes about is having our prospective teachers complete a supervised internship from one to three years. This would cut down on the hiring of incompetent teachers.

Lastly, teachers should be rewarded based on merit, not seniority. As I'm sure many can attest to, there are teachers out there who have been teaching for years, but are not necessarily the best for our students.  

I agree with what Joel Klein had to say. If schools and colleges took this changes to heart we would have a much better public school system for our children to attend. Many believe the going into education as a career is easy. I simply do not agree with this. Teacher's are unappreciated even though we trust them to educate our children property. When we start treating teachers as professionals, changes will begin to take affect.