The dumbing down has been working all too well
Daughter's friend works in a dept that accredits teachers at a Uni in TX. We hear horror stories, almost weekly, of how basically illiterate too many of these students are. So many can't follow even basic instructions on scheduling and taking of tests they need to pass to become teachers. More than a few come in to argue that they should be allowed to pass after missing testing appointments or even failing tests. Some bring their moms into the discussion to argue their case! These are not freshmen, but post grads for the most part. My daughter's friend fights the Uni and department heads to make the point that they really need to confront the problems and institute changes. She generally has suggestions they could implement. She is burned out for trying to make sure they actually turn out people who can teach the kids of Texas.
Oh, and the institution where she works is on probation, but they are supposed to tell anyone.
College students don’t know how to read anymore. We’re in denial over how bad it’s gotten.
[link:https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/02/literacy-crisis-reading-comprehension-college.html?via=rss|]
It goes on with more specifics and exposing of problems. My daughter's pal might get whiplash nodding along as she reads this Slate article.
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They still need to pass the pedagogy and practices test and content test in TX, at least.
The small engine repair and welding teacher ... What bachelor's degree would those be? Caltech has a program for that? Oregon State? U. Chicago?
And the program leading to graduating having finished your apprenticeship in machining, using milling machines and CNC lathes? Harvard has a machining degree? No--that would be UC Berkeley. (My high school class' valedictorian fell in that category. Not Berkeley. But he graduated as a master machinist. Started with a great pay. Had a student years ago who got a $50k/year job as a welder, supplemented his income with designing and building special projects ... Before he graduated his high. His inferior welding teacher--lacking the BS in Welding Sciences--trained him well. He earned more than me, with my MA.)
See the problem?
Now, you want somebody to teach IB organic chemistry? Yeah, get the degree.
As for hiring teachers with no teaching experience, you're right, that's stupid. It's like hiring an entry level bookkeeper that doesn't have at least 5 years' experience bookkeeping, or a trainee with no experience to build cars. But wait--if you can't hire somebody with no experience, how can anybody get experience to be hired? 
Back in '88, '89, the research was clear. Teach phonics. Teach vocabulary. Read to students to expand vocabulary.
30 years later we had the same crap I flopped at in the late '60s--"whole word." Because it was considered less old fashioned and more "progressive." It's a good deal--phonology is constructed by the individual brain, so you need a minimum vocab to figure out how your L1 works, and most "phonemic awareness" programs teach and test phonics and vocabulary but say, "We're [ falsely ] claiming to teach phonemic awareness." Because that's what the useless education schools teach to teach.
Still, you put kids under pressure to learn and bore them with no distractions, they mostly figured it out. I learned how to read between second and third grades when my father helped me read some ridiculous story about an anthropomorphized family of brown bears, I saw there was a whole saga for this family, and he got me book after book. Given my engaged efforts during that one summer vacation I went from low-tracked 2nd grade with a C- average to having my 3rd grade teacher and test results suggest I could skip 4th grade ... Nixed by "au courant with the latest thinking/best practices" counselors who said it would hurt my psycho-social development by depriving me of my (non-existent) friends. Idjits to a cell.
Speaking of cells, now that's a problem. I'm thinking tomorrow every student that I see on a cell phone gets written up after they fail their open-note/closed phone vocabulary pop quiz over what was presented today. (Each word was highlighted, pointed out, identified as testable and to be noted. Near end of class, I went back over each word they needed to know twice. Kids who get pissed if I say, "I'm busy, give me a minute" can flip me the bird for 40 minutes and be pissed off when I say, "Why are you talking over me--be quiet." "I'm not talking." Self-centered "I have the right social views, I'm green!" or self-righteous JROTC assholes. Let the kid who fell asleep sleep ... woke him up as his lunch period ended. "Oops. Get to class." "But I missed lunch?" "Not my problem. Get to class or be marked absent and get a robo-call saying you were truant. Don't fall asleep."
Cellgen. Faraday bags for all. Or make all rooms into Faraday cages.
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