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Teaching by the unqualified



PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
Administrators, imbued with this
false idea, feel free to assign teachers to any class without regard
to their qualification to teach the subject.

An anecdote that is close to my heart:

Over 30 years ago I was hired to teach Physics and 8th grade physical
science ( I thought) in a new 7-12 Union school in Vermont. I was
surprised to later learn that i, (a EE graduate) would also be teaching
Asronomy as we had a planetarium that needed to be used. When I objected
that I was unqualified, I was told "You said in the interview that your
grandfather had been an astonomer. You are the most qualified on the
staff!" I am happy to report that my students and I had a lot of fun
learning astronomy that year. I told them the story the first day and
invited them on an learning adventure.

Kids can respond well when invited to be part of the learning team. Sad
the teacher who feels he must know it all. Even today if a student came to
me with the idea that 0.99999999...= 1 I would have to ask how they knew
that and if they could prove it to me as I am not sure. I am always
pleased when one of my students can and will teach me something. So are
they.

Ken Fox
(who is old enough to know how little he knows and relishes that!)