A hot item among those who prepare secondary physics teachers in Minnesota
these days.
Back in '62 when I first received MN state certification in Secondary
Science I had a Chemistry major, and was certified, as far as the state was
concerned to teach any high school science. ( However, the North Central
Assn, which accredited our private high school objected to my teaching a
course called "General Science" as I had never had any college biology
courses.) There are still lots of HS teachers in MN who got their
certification under this rubric.
In '79, the state dept of educ got peeved because too many math teachers
(they thought) were also teaching physics, so they decreed that ALL who
desired certification for either Chemistry or Physics MUST be qualified to
teach BOTH. This is the reg currently in effect. Candidates for Physical
Science licensure must have taken 40% of their undergraduate credits in
Chemistry and Physics with no less than 15% in either. The number of
candidates for this license dropped off astonishingly, as most Chemistry
majors want to teach Chemistry, not Physics, and resent the extra Physics
courses.
Today, they tell us, doom looms on the horizon. The state dept of educ,
which is not the dept of educ anymore, but some new politically correct
title, is about to decree that ALL LICENSED SCIENCE TEACHERS IN MINNESOTA
WILL BE PREPARED TO TEACH ANY SCIENCE IN GRADES 5-12.
This is coupled with a bunch of nitwits at the Board of Teaching who can't
do percents, and keep telling us that we are requiring too many credits in
the sciences in our teacher ed programs . We just stand around with our
lower jaws on our chests wondering what is going to happen to science
education in this state. Gossip has it that there is only one
representative from post-secondary education on the committee that is
planning this fiasco.
Margaret J. Clarke, OSB
Physics Department
College of St. Scholastica
Duluth MN
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What are the physics course requirements to be "certified" in
physics?