After 14 years of teaching in the
classroom, working for school reform, and
leading my Union, it is my opinion that
alternate route teachers are as good or
better than those who came out of the
colleges of education. They are apt to
approach their jobs more professionally and
more likely to use more traditional methods
that work better for student achievement.
Of course there are many exceptions and in
many cases additional training and
mentoring might be necessary. The fact is
that the colleges of education have
produced generations of teachers who are
familiar with pedagogy but know little
about content knowledge or basic common
sense classroom management. Working hand in
glove with the colleges of education is the
National Board Certifiction process, which
rewards those teachers who can recite the
pedagogy and at the same time attempts to
drive alternate route teachers from the
classroom.

John Tuepker, jltuepker@aol.com,
12/31/01

This month's letters: