When I flew from my nice big city to a nice little town, I had only met a few people at my destination. A kindly professor in the School of Education had offered to give me a room until my wife could oversee the packing of our household and drive herself and our young daughters across ⅓ of the country by herself to our new residence. However, there had been a small miscommunication and when I landed on a Friday afternoon at the small municipal airport, I found that he was not available for the weekend. The town has more motels now but at the time, it had few and I knew none of them. I did get a cab and I stayed in the main downtown hotel for two nights. So, these two nights of June 7 and 8 are memorable for me, given that I was starting a new life in a new place alone.
Yesterday's post was answered by an old friend, a retired pastor, who appreciated the salute to teachers, also by a retired professor who is a specialist in philosophy and Eastern thought, and a young grandmother we met last year. Their comments encouraged me to write about the difference between teaching in K-12 American schools and teaching college and graduate students.
I had no idea when I went to a local teachers' college that I would ever attend graduate school. I had no idea about graduate school. I imagined, without much thought, that I would be a middle or high school teacher. The teachers' college had limited capacity for training teachers and only trained elementary and middle school teachers. I felt I was too manly and grown up to teach elementary school so I chose middle school.
They gave me a list of the courses I would need to complete. I said I had hoped to have some choice in what courses I studied. They said there were choices in the curriculum for elementary teachers so I chose that. I taught the 5th grade and liked doing so. Then, someone informed me that the state required a master's degree to remain a licensed teacher after 10 years. Thinking I had better get started, I took a class in basic guidance counseling and another in basic statistics. I did well in the stat class and I liked it. Not many elementary teachers like math or statistics but I had a math minor in undergrad studies and I knew I liked the subject. I had been specializing in teaching calculation (by hand of course, no computers, calculators or spreadsheets at that time) to all the 5th graders, about 90 in all. I taught 5th grade for 4 years. Then, my grad school advisor informed me of a scholarship program sponsored by the federal government that was to begin soon. It was the program in ed research and experimental design. I applied, was admitted and graduated with my doctorate three years later.
There is a bit of a parallel between education and medicine since in both areas, the individual person counts heavily. The personality, physical body, family and cultural background matter, not just memory and intelligence, whatever that is. I think a test tube of mercury is like any other test tube of mercury but this 5th grader is enormously different from that one. We have enough trouble with our medical system. Can you imagine trying to have a personal teacher for each child and adolescent? We need the best, sharpest minds and most appropriate temperaments for teachers since they have a very demanding job.
