Another CNN report from last week looks at a federal program called Troops to Teachers which helps people leaving the military to transition into the teaching profession. In addition to providing assistance with getting their credentials and finding a job, the program also offers a large bonus for those willing to work in schools serving poor children.
As you might expect, there are some in the education industry who don’t like the program, such as one college professor who believes "military discipline doesn’t work with an 8-year-old". He goes on to say
"Public schools and children don’t work that way," said Danforth, the college’s chair of the division of teaching and learning. "The chains of command are loose, authority is always questionable, even the authority of teachers."
You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that public schools these days don’t have military discipline and that teachers need other tools to motivate and encourage their kids. Hopefully, Troops to Teachers and other "transition" teachers are getting good training from a quality mentoring/induction program in their school systems.
Next week our district will be welcoming more than 500 brand new teachers to three days of training that is just the start of a very comprehensive induction program (we have almost 300 more who elected not to participate). I don’t know how many are coming to teaching from other professions but I’d be willing to bet that most of them will become excellent teachers.
* I have no clue how that’s supposed to be spelled. :-)