I'm bloody sick of reading in the British papers about the terrible teachers. I trained in England 1970 -1973, taught there and am now living and teaching in Canada over 35 years later.
Way back in the 70's, when I was training, crappy 'would-be teachers' graduated with the rest of us (yes - I consider myself a decent teacher who makes learning fun etc. coz I was bored at High School). They graduated and were sent out, like the rest of us, to do their Probationary Year in a designated school.
I've never heard of any ONE of them NOT passing their probationary year. So why was it called 'probationary'?
In my first two years of teaching I worked next-door to a screaming 'witch'. She had me in tears once and certainly didn't belong in a classroom...but then..her sister was a headmistress for the same schoolboard...so she stayed and tortured students until she retired (or died - I don't know which came first but she was too old then, to be living now).
DON'T GIVE THE BLOODY CRAPPY TRAINEES A CERTIFICATE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Just because someone has fifteen degrees including a PhD - does NOT make them a good teacher. In fact, these are usually the ones who haven't a clue how difficult it is for some students to 'learn' because, for the most part, learning comes easily to them. These teachers merely 'instruct' they do not 'teach'.
Some of the best teachers I have worked with are those who didn't go straight to college or university from school. They went out into the big wide world and worked a number of jobs (great experience - I did it myself) before going to Teachers' college. Many didn't get a degree because in the 70's you didn't need one.
They still do 'teaching placements' in England I assume. So why not watch them THEN in the classrooms before they're issued a certificate which allows them to go and bore students to death whilst picking up a decent salary.
Only give the certificates to the GOOD ones. This'll save the tax payers a hell of a lot of money.
This sounds like common sense to me but no-one working in the 'system' appears to have the balls to do it. They prefer to wait until it's too late and then whine about it and employ high-salaried inspectors to go out and sweep up.
It's the students I feel so sorry for.
