Re: Why Not Give References?

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

"BTW the teacher
certification program in TX requires undergraduate grades and the candidate
is required to pass their inane state college entrance exam despite a PhD.
The required GPA as I remember is 3.0 which is low for recent graduates but
high for anyone who graduated before the Vietnam war.  The quality of the
teacher preparation courses and of the teachers is another matter."

This hit a nerve -- I no longer substitute teach (HS), because I thought three
attempts at passing the CBEST (Calif. basic ed. skills test) was just too much,
especially as substitute teaching was essentially child minding.  [Except for a
ten week chem. stint].  I do have the, not so magic, three letters, and earned
a 3.0 before that war.  If anything the three letters make me a worse teacher
and my CBEST failure has nothing to do with teaching ability.


Many times checking references before posting has saved me embarrassment, and
I've read every Feynman (et al.) reference posted, and many others.

bc  who is still too often embarrassed



John Clement wrote:

> > Given that I don't have the letters "PhD" after my name, I doubt
> > that I am physically and intellectually capable of providing
> > references for anything I say. I prefer to let ten years of year
> > round teaching (18-22 contact hours per week) be my "reference".
> >
> > ...back to the real world...
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Joe Heafner - Instructional Astronomy and Physics
> > Home Page http://users.vnet.net/heafnerj/index.html
> > I don't have a Lexus, but I do have a Mac. Same thing.
>
> I think Joe is being a little disingenuous.  He has plenty of references
> judging from his web pages, and a lot of fortitude to produce the pages.
> Not having a PhD is nothing to be ashamed of.  Remember a PhD + $.75 will
> get you a cup of coffee.  Joe is in a wonderful place to do some good
> research into physics learning.  Tom O'Kuma, past AAPT president, and also a
> 2 yr college teacher is doing some wonderful research.  BTW the teacher
> certification program in TX requires undergraduate grades and the candidate
> is required to pass their inane state college entrance exam despite a PhD.
> The required GPA as I remember is 3.0 which is low for recent graduates but
> high for anyone who graduated before the Vietnam war.  The quality of the
> teacher preparation courses and of the teachers is another matter.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX