[etni] Re: new English teachers
- From: Shlayer <shlayer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:43:13 +0200
I have just read the short article in today's Ha'aretz regarding the
announcement that the Ministry of Education is going to use ex hi-tech
university graduates to teach English by giving them a 6 month express
course. Furthermore, in order to "encourage" these people into the
profession they are willing to pay them more than a new bona fide English
teacher gets as a starting salary. I find this insulting and disgraceful to
say the least.
We English teachers didn't become teachers because to quote the old adage
"those who can do, those who can't teach" - we went into teaching because
we believe that education is one of the few ways one can try to make the
world a better place to live in. We all did our four years at university or
college and many of us studied further to get second and even third degrees.
I see myself as being a professional teacher - I take pride in my knowledge
and skills and it took me a long time to develop and accumulate them through
hard work and experience. How can it be possible to "train" someone who
never thought of going into teaching in the first place, to suddenly become
a teacher in six months. Will they learn all about second language
acquisition, applied linguistics, methodology, not to mention the psychology
of the adolescent, the philosophy of education etc etc.in this short time?
Or, if you are a graduate in say computer science, engineering, or business
(as I imagine some or most hi tech people are) don't you need those
subjects? And I haven't talked about class management and English literature
(if they teach in high school). Do me a favour!
I have never heard of anything so farcical and insulting,
Yes, there is a shortage of English teachers - the writing was on the wall a
long time ago. But even a native speaker (and I assume most of these people
are not native speakers even though their English may be reasonable) cannot
just go into a classroom and teach. Teaching is an art - it requires
knowledge, study, experience and most of all a love for the profession.
And then to add insult to injury, these people are going to be paid MORE
than many teachers get in their first 5 years of teaching. Where is the
fairness in that?
If you did your four years at Oranim or Gordon or any other college aren't
you good enough?
I am not stupid enough to even suggest that paying teachers more would get
them to stay in the profession - we spent two months last year on that one
and got nowhere. But the Ministry of Education obviously has found money to
pay these new "super teachers". Maybe remunerating real English teachers
for their extra workload - project work, the new Literature programme, time
spent testing LD pupils etc would mean that people wouldn't be leaving the
profession as many have done in the past years - fed up with being underpaid
and overworked. I want to see a hi- tech person (and I have nothing against
them per se) work under the conditions we do without getting paid. Mind
you, they will probably stick it out until the economic situation gets
better and then they will up and off to the greener pastures of Amdocs,
Intel, Microsoft etc.
We always talk about nurturing our pupils well I think teachers should be
nurtured too. At least we shouldn't have to read things like this in the
newspaper which
basically implies that those who chose the profession and studied for it are
not as good as someone sitting in his high rise building who has been made
redundant and needs a job now and who is really worth much more than you or
I.
Sorry, bus something stinks in the land of education.
I don't expect anything different from the Ministry of Education but I do
expect the English inspectors to veto a plan like this. Go out there and
find all those teachers who left the profession - many of them good teachers
(I know quite a few personally) and pay them that extra salary you are
willing to spend on non- teachers to get them back but don't, please don't
kid yourselves that teaching can be learned in six months!
I rest my case.
Jaye Shlayer
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