After a less than quality class in April, I started a new class at National University and I continue to get frustrated with an atrophied education system, through and through. But I am still plotting along and working towards teaching and growing the industrial arts in public schools. What I have learned at National is that there is no clear path to becoming a teacher, which I take as a positive opportunity to be creative in my approach. I have learned that how our public schools prepare our youth for life is through relentless academic training(memorization), separated from life experience, is echoed in teacher training programs(especially at National). Are we to believe that a good teacher will be produced from attending 15 classes, reading 15 books, and doing 4 months of student teaching, while going into considerable debt in the process? I have to say that my 4 years substitute teaching have taught me more about being a teacher than anything I have encountered in these classrooms.
And my particular predicament here in the SF bay area, is that there are no specific Industrial Arts credential programs.
-internships as entry to teaching, work with a boomer, while learning course work. make golden handshake with boomers to negotiate a new retirement deal, while working toegther to hand off society into a new model for changing societies foundation.
-apprenticeship, not centralized disconnected assessment review(TPAs and video production of our weak linked student teaching experience.
-using my time at national to take initiative in speaking out about my vision of how education will change and how we can initiate that change. It is also an opportunity to audit the teacher candidate process so that I can design a IA, or CTE program to introduce to public education. I have to understand the system and standards that make up our ed system as it is.
-concept of separatism in education runs deep. it's echoed from society itself and consumer culture. we all need to build social mechanisms and learn how to live, work and learn together.
-what is learning if there is no immediate meaningful application in society. School has become a game to veigh for a limited number of top spots on the bell curve of corporate/consumer culture.
-