Teaching 101

I seem to be on this teaching thing, so here goes. Once again the conversation got around to whether or not teachers should be required to teach non-college level courses. Perhaps because I started my career at a school where we had to teach all levels, I adopted that philosophy. The theory is that if you are certified to teach, then you are certified to teach everyone--not just the kids who are motivated and bright (i.e. college-bound). It makes us better teachers if we are constantly being challenged to provide an education to a broad spectrum of the student population. On the other hand, I know people who are capable of terrible harm if they were forced to teach lower-level students. And let's be real--how difficult is it to walk into an upper-level class and teach these well-behaved, hard-working students?

I suppose that an equitable method would be for administrators to ask for volunteers to teach the more challenging classes, and then accomodate some other request--perhaps a favorite prep, or an easier duty. I'm amazed at the number of teachers who admit that they dislike (some say hate) teaching non-college level classes, and even request (or insist) that they not be assigned any. They are not aware that what they're really saying is that they are not qualified to teach.