Dear Governor Walker,
As I prepare to begin a second semester of teaching 9th grade English this Monday, I can’t help but wonder: What makes someone a good teacher? Is it a comprehensive knowledge of and passion for the subject taught? Is it a craving to command those rooms filled, year after year, with young minds waiting to be molded into “educated” adults? Is it real-world, field-based job experience? Or, is it the years of “training” undergone before stepping foot into a classroom that best prepares one to effectively teach? Many would argue for just one or two of the above, but I have to disagree. The answer is a combination of all the above.
You see, my path to education was different from many seasoned educators in the field today. I started college as an undecided major at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, transferred to UW-Madison and began a major in English, then added a second major in Journalism through the University’s “J-School”. The education profession was nowhere on my radar. After graduating in 2009 with experience in the Journalism field via various magazine and newspaper internships, I began my tour of jobs-I-didn’t-want-for-long-and-wasn’t-good-at: Starbucks barista, hotel desk clerk, bartender (if two days counts), and Communicator in the Labor and Delivery unit of Froedtert Hospital. Each of these stints granted me real-world work experience and a surface-level knowledge of that particular job (i.e. I learned more about labor than I ever wanted to), but I wasn’t utilizing my knowledge and skills; that “education” I had been cultivating for the past four years. Something had to change.
It was at this point that I decided to try substitute teaching. My mom was a teacher in the Cudahy School District where, she said, I could fill in as needed. I paid the required $100 to DPI and began the wait for those early a.m. calls. It was through those (albeit short and scattered) days that I had a cliche moment of realization: I was good at this job. I found my strengths (high school) and weaknesses (elementary), and, in short, discovered in myself a passion I never knew I had. Shortly thereafter, I learned about Carthage College’s Accelerated Certification for Teachers program. Fourteen months and bam!- You’re a teacher. It sounded easy enough, and like any program, parts of it were. Yet, there was something more that came along with the required classes which helped hone classroom skills, learn and practice reading strategies, and embed in us some of the basic fundamentals of teaching. It was being in classes comprised of people of a variety of ages, skilled in various “subjects,” from different socioeconomic backgrounds who made the decision that educating kids was the path they had decided was right for them.
Obviously, each of us in the program came from a different educational background as well; our undergraduate degrees were not in Education. However, we shared a likened passion that drove us to the licensure program; one which required the necessary time and energy from not only ourselves but also our professors, advisors, and mentors to ensure that we were prepared to step into our respective future classrooms and not only do the job, but do it well. We were required to teach for a year while taking classes and were observed doing so, given feedback, and held accountable for the abundance of collective weaknesses we had to improve upon. We were praised for our strengths in making connections with students and becoming involved in our schools, though we knew there was the possibility that future employment with that particular district was not a guarantee.
Not everyone in my cohort immediately earned a teaching job the following year. Some have since left the profession and made another career change. Some have switched from teaching to a different position within the school system. Some, including myself, went on to obtain a Master of Educational Leadership degree through Carthage and have reached the middle of our fifth year of teaching. No matter the case, though, we all went through the external as well as internal reflections and learning processes it takes to be able to call ourselves teachers. This is where your plan comes in.
There is no singular “test” that can determine if a person should be a teacher. In fact, there are plenty of teachers who have gone through numerous years of preparation and have taken many tests who should probably be in a different career. Yes, I will agree that work and world experiences can make someone an excellent teacher. They have gathered knowledge from the front lines and want to share their learning with today’s youth, and no one should be deterred from that invaluable opportunity. But experience, talent, and “competency” or “value” in the private (or any) sector are only factors that can determine if one is equipped and capable of sharing the incredible responsibility of teaching (and coaching and advising and mentoring). This assumed competency in skills or experiences paired with a “proficiency test” is simply not enough to award anyone a teaching license. Would you ask a doctor who has been practicing medicine for several years and decides he wants to be a lawyer to take a test one day and the next day call him your attorney? How can someone who has never been charged with the task of managing a classroom let alone educating in one know that he/she even wants to fill that role? Like a student’s range of knowledge and skills, one’s aptitude for teaching cannot be measured and determined by a standardized test.
Education itself is rapidly changing. Schools are “living” in the sense that they have to be flexible with the ever-changing and growing students they hold. Educators’ focuses are shifting, and as respected teacher and author Dennis Littky writes in his book The Big Picture, “A great school is like a successful business in that it keeps looking at itself, questioning its operations, and making adjustments accordingly: when the kids change, when technology changes, when priorities change, when new research findings suggest a better way” (185). Like many successful businessmen, politicians and educators, I agree that reflection is necessary and change is inevitable; these are integral parts of life. However, upon reflection, I do not believe your “easy process” licensure proposal is “a better way”.
I do not believe encouraging more people to become teachers is wrong. I do, however, believe that it is other factors (which do not need to be discussed here) that are deterring so many from entering (as well as prompting so many to leave) my beloved profession. If a fourteen-month graduate program or four years of undergraduate classes are enough to dispel one’s dream of teaching, then so be it. Of course, I do not celebrate my monthly college loan payments. Yet, in my eyes, the reward of waking up every day to go to a career I love and feel called to do is worth any price. My job is not always “easy,” but no job worth having is.
Sincerely,
Lara Sokolowski
English Teacher
Lara teaches and coaches at a high school in South Milwaukee. Do you agree with her take on teacher training? Tell us what you think. Please send all comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com
