--- Jon Gabriel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > While a high school teacher for ancient history or > English may not require > CE courses they are most certainly relevant and in > fact crucial for science > teachers (especially bio & chem). New advances in > the sciences routinely > invalidate our current knowledge in many fields > every 5-7 years or so. > Those textbooks are revised for a reason. I really > cannot imagine any > education researcher worthy their salt not > acknowledging that and > understanding the reasoning behind the need for > continuing education for > most educators. Doctors and pharmacists take CE > credits for the same > reason. > Jon
I didn't say CE in _knowledge areas_, which I'm entirely in favor of (although, so far as I am aware, it's something that the unions are opposed to). Something approaching a numerical majority of American science teachers (IIRC) did not, in fact, major in their subject in college, sadly enough. I was talking about the (extremely) useless entrance requirement teacher certification courses that anyone who wants to teach in a public school must pass. The physics teacher who taught our Mathematical Physics course in HS (using the Feynman Lectures as a textbook - God, just thinking about that year makes my brain hurt) used to show up and then vanish, being replaced by a "consultant" (an actual physicist) who would teach the course - this arrangement being necessary because the "consultant", despite having a PhD in Physics and enough different papers published that he probably could have gotten tenure at a middle-tier university, was technically not "qualified" to teach a class. Had he wished to teach in a private school (or charter school, now) he would have been accepted without a second thought. My own experience was similar. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
