Posted by: red hibiscus
« on: September 20, 2006, 07:28:20 PM »Kudos to this Simons guy...
I think considering changing the educational requirements for high school math teachers is definitely worth pursuing. It's pretty sad that 40% of public high school math teachers don't even have a degree in math. How are they supposed to effectively teach the material to students if they are unqualified? (at least in my opinion, unqualified...I don't think having a BA/BS in the subject area is asking too much) Who wants to teach something they don't have a background in? I can think of at least 3 of my high school teachers who did not have a degree in their respective subject areas---and yep, they were all math teachers (I sure hope they didn't just download what they taught off the internet either...horrible!).
I think at the present state we may be depriving students of potentially better learning experiences. Teachers with math degrees not only have more advanced math knowledge (hopefully!), but they may also have better ways to teach the concepts to students. Plus, they're more likely to be passionate about what they're teaching, which rocks even more...
I think considering changing the educational requirements for high school math teachers is definitely worth pursuing. It's pretty sad that 40% of public high school math teachers don't even have a degree in math. How are they supposed to effectively teach the material to students if they are unqualified? (at least in my opinion, unqualified...I don't think having a BA/BS in the subject area is asking too much) Who wants to teach something they don't have a background in? I can think of at least 3 of my high school teachers who did not have a degree in their respective subject areas---and yep, they were all math teachers (I sure hope they didn't just download what they taught off the internet either...horrible!).
I think at the present state we may be depriving students of potentially better learning experiences. Teachers with math degrees not only have more advanced math knowledge (hopefully!), but they may also have better ways to teach the concepts to students. Plus, they're more likely to be passionate about what they're teaching, which rocks even more...