Parade Magazine Poll

[jclaw]

Do you think parents should have to have teaching credentials to teach their own children?

Go vote in the online Parade Magazine Poll regarding homeschooling.

Comments

[saffirebleu]

Once I wrote a great big rant about teaching credentials. I have them. They don't mean squat when it comes to homeschooling. In teacher college (and I attended one of the top 10 teacher colleges in American universities) I learned methods, child psychology, and discipline techniques. Teaching is something intrinsic. You can either do it, or you can't. Credentials make no difference. I've known several teachers in public schools who can't teach. I know this because I had them in school. I also had teachers who were awesome educators. I think they would have been awesome regardless of the credentials they had. Also, substitute teachers in many states are not required to have any kind of degree whatsoever, just a high school diploma. In other cases, teachers are recruited from other fields to teach specialized subjects (such as in the sciences), and those teachers do not have education degrees.

I feel very strongly about this, in case it doesn't show. :D