FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED NOV. 3, 1999
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
The usual restrictions apply
Plato. Aristotle. William Harvey. Professor Bell of Edinburgh. The
Anglican clergyman James Maury, whose students included Thomas Jefferson.
What did these great teachers have in common?
Not one of them ever set foot in a "college of education."
The Clark County (Las Vegas) school district needs to hire up to 1,700
new teachers per year to keep up with growth, we're told. And if something
new isn't tried, that goal is not going to be met, schools Superintendent
Brian Cram warned state legislators and parents at an Oct. 27 education
roundtable.
The situation is critical enough that if new approaches aren't found to
recruit more teachers, Clark County students could be walking into empty
classrooms within the next few years, the superintendent warned.
Though stung by criticism that UNLV's plan to generate 700 teachers per
year "isn't enough," UNLV Provost Douglas Ferraro told the gathering he
would be willing to examine any proposal to address the teacher shortage.
So far, so good.
But then Mr. Cram presented his planned solution:
More money would be pumped into "teacher recruitment and preparation" at
UNLV. The Community College of Southern Nevada would launch its own
four-year teacher educatin program. And -- lo and behold -- private
teacher education institutions would be allowed to join the race.
That last idea might actually have some merit. But does anyone notice a
common element here? Although the gentlemen voice a willingness to "try
anything," in fact the only options they're willing to seriously explore
involve expanding the current monopoly of the "Education" colleges.
In truth, there's no shortage of folks willing and able to teach in the
public schools, and expert in the subject matter to be covered. This
"shortage" is a completely artificial one, based on restrictive definitions
of who may be a "teacher."
In the First World War, as armaments grew rapidly more sophisticated,
losses among their airmen began to mount exponentially, and the Allied air
forces quickly developed a shortage of trained pilots.
The flying schools were training everyone with the proper qualifications
who could be induced to volunteer, but still the shortfalls grew.
Finally, the generals determined to try something which would have been
unthinkable only a few years before. They began to accept men with flying
experience or a demonstrable aptitude for flying, who -- hold onto your
seats, now -- were (start ital)not commissioned officers(end ital).
Really! Enlisted men. In some cases, men not even of the best families!
In this day and age, we laugh at such distinctions. But in an age in
which naval and cavalry officers were still often expected to provide their
own expensive uniforms and eaponry and sometimes even those of their men,
the idea of allowing mere "commoners" to do officers' work -- why, perhaps
even to (start ital)shoot down(end ital) officers -- was anathema.
Today, a similarly artificial shortage is being created by the assumption
that the only people we dare admit into our classrooms are those who have
met licensing requirements arbitrarily established to protect the monopoly
of those who make their livings teaching a bunch of "pedagogical"
mumbo-jumbo.
Yes, perhaps some special training is necessary to each "special needs"
children, or to recognize disabilities among tots entering the first grade.
But today, someone with a Ph.D. in chemistry is not welcome in a Clark
County public high school classroom, while an "Ed School" graduate who
muddled through a couple introductory chemistry classes with "gentlemen's
C's" is proudly presented to us as a "chemistry teacher."
Facilitating alternative licensure of professionals willing to switch
careers and teach what they've learned in industry or the armed forces --
without making them go back to school to learn the latest psychobabble code
talk -- would largely eliminate this artificial "crisis."
And let's be absolutely clear: I'm not talking about "letting them catch
up on their ed school credits at night." No, I'm talking about hiring
teachers -- based on demonstrated expertise and aptitude -- who have never
set foot in a "school of education," and never will.
What? But I thought there was a crisis, and the gentlemen were willing to
"examine any proposal."
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $24.95 postpaid from Mountain
Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127; by dialing 1-800-244-2224;
or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html .
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politcs is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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