Comments about ‘`Expert' teacher bill fails in House’

Yay--I'm glad to hear something about Senator Buttars besides the whole dumb gay thing. That was so old. Thanks for moving on to real issues and acting like grown ups already.

If anyone has been around the teacher's profession, one recognizes that some qualified, some unqualified teachers gain a credential from a "recognized" school of education.
I had rather have a learned person in a discipline with a honest master's degree or a doctoral degree in some recognized field teaching, with some minimal training in the art of teaching, than a teacher who is simply a certified professional that knows little about the subject material.
Until the level of instruction classrooms increased mightly, the same old battles over education will keep coming our way.
Longdrycreek, Texas Panhandle

Thank goodness logic ruled the day in the House. What is wrong with Utah Senate? This bill was an attempt to "hook out" our education system and they actually passed it.

I agree with this bill...I think it would actually improve the teaching quality, provided that "experts" in their discipline are hired. What makes an individual with a teaching certificate more qualified than someone with a Masters degree?

Thank you house members who recognize that it's not true that just anyone can teach. If there really are "experts" out there who want to teach, please join the teaching ranks, but to do so without some knowledge of classroom management and teaching theory, the likelihood of great success is small.

To Longdrycreek: sounds like you need a teacher of grammar yourself. I'm sure though, that you would prefer a doctor of linguistics rather than seventh grade English teacher. Surely, a doctor of linguistics would be able teach you better, for university academics are known for their highly communicative teaching styles (ha!). Do you see my point? Trained teachers who actually decide to become teachers as a profession and have a passion, empathy, and energy for teaching children, not a washed-up academic who has probably failed in the "real world," are much more qualitifed--more patient, more battle-tested, and more passionate.

Hey I vote for Buttars- the vast majority of Utah teachers have Masters Degrees.

The pure idea that "only teachers can teach" stinks enormously. That is one of the instutionalized problems of public education.

I personally know of many pure math majors who can out perform most high school math teachers' in Utah.

With the shortage of so called "highly qualified" teachers, there should be another certification route to tapping into the expertise of our educated citizens.

Beside, the districts still spend years and money in professional training for new teachers coming out of our universities with teaching credentials.

I heard 50% of all teachers don't make it to 3 years of teaching. I would raise that number to 75% if this bill passed

"I vote for Buttars" doesn't realize that teachers are in fact experts in their chosen field. I took just as many classes in my major fields as those who did not also choose teaching.

That makes me doubly expert- and with a master's degree.

there already is an alternative route to certification. What's more, the inexperienced teacher doing this is teaching and learning at the same time. I've heard that most of them have extreme difficulty in the classroom in spite of their subject expertise. But if they'll stick out the rough years, they'll probably make good teachers.

And mentoring and continuing professional development only make good sense.

Experts that want to become teachers can already do so and can get a teaching certificate w/o having to complete "years of schooling." it's called alternative certification and those w/ bachelors can get certified in1-2 years.

You are ignorant to what teaching entails, just because you have a degree does not make you a good teacher. Some of the worst teachers I have ever had are college professors that need to leave their lab and try to actual explain what they know. Most of them do not care or can not communicate at a level anyone can understand. This includes many math teacher I had. There is much more to teaching than knowing things. You actually need to have a personality to inspire kids, I wish it were so simple as explaining what I know.

I fully expected Buttars bill to fly through. It really would not change the landscape of education one iota because no sane and reasonable administrator would take a risk hiring someone that may not know how to deal with kids. It really would accomplish very little.

However there are probably a half dozen or so that would have succeeded. It probably is better to kill a bill where the majority of people would be harmed.

This is really surprising. A Buttars bill failed? What's happening? Did the House suddenly awaken from a coma?

I'm not from Utah, but when I heard about this, I thought it sounded like an excellent idea. A professional passing his knowledge and experience onto others, who would know the material better than someone who has used it daily in his work for years. Physicians teaching health or anatomy courses, coaches with big-league experience teaching PE, a former district attorney teaching a law and justice class, and I'm sure there are countless more possibilities. It sounds genius. Many are saying that it's not a good idea at all. Please explain how - I'd really like to know.

Let me see if I got this straight, I can only get a personality to deal with kids by getting a teaching degree? And I can only teach if I know teaching theory?

I think I now understand the problem with our education system.

For those of you teachers who don't understand, ask someone in the real world what my point is.

For I see in your "real world" do they allow anyone of the street to come in and do your job? Real teaching requires far more than subject matter knowledge. Because in your real world you have successfully (in your mind) taught a Sunday School class, does not mean that you can walk into a high school and teach a class of 35 students, many of whom don't really want to be there, and their soul purpose for the day is to disrupt the class. Not saying you couldn't do it, but it might be a little harder than you think. I am not even going to imagine you trying to teach 28 second graders, your clueless if you think you can walk of the street and do that

Looks like the Teacher Union protective association wins again.

Do nothing to alter the public skool monopoly because if any freedom of choice or other options are permitted, it may reflect badly on the unionized teachers when it is shown that other options deliver equal or better education.

Home School or private schools, or charter schools are the best options to ensure that our kids get a real education, not liberal indoctrination.

The demand that teachers come for the "approved" sole source pipeline is like the monopoly the old time craftsmen guilds used to have.

Sorry to burst your bubble of perfect schools...

Charter Schools are required to hire only CERTIFIED TEACHERS. Just like a District School, Charter Schools are public schools and are required to follow all the same guidelines including Certified Teachers and NCLB.

Most Private Schools also hire Certified Teachers to teach and then bring in "Specialists" to supplement the classroom teaching. So, a Certified English Teacher will be the classroom teacher, but they may bring in a published author to talk about writing styles or an editor to talk about punctuation and "sound bite" writing.

The only chance you have to completely control your child's education is to Home School the child. If you can do this successfully and have the child ready for college without any help from the District, Charter, or Private School communities, my hat is off to you. I have known/know many Home Schoolers and they all have sent/send their children to a school for help with some of the subjects as the children grew/grow.