A local high school is closing down its really great German program because the director of the program is retiring and a new one can’t be found.
In reality, however, there is a new German teacher who wants to work at that school and who is passionately wanted by the school. He is a graduating student at our department, fluent in German and Spanish, a brilliant fellow who is amazing at literary analysis, and a phenomenal asset to any school. I have him in one of my courses right now, and he is simply outstanding.
The teacher in question can’t start working at the school that wants him because he keeps failing the trig and geometry portion of one of the five teacher certification tests mandated by the state. If you are planning to ask why a teacher of German needs to pass an exam in trig, please ask someone else. I’m clueless about the logic of this process.
The state is experiencing a horrible dearth of teachers but we are failing to get our students to graduate because every year there are additional teacher certification tests for students to pass. Altogether, students have to pay over $700 for these useless and ridiculous tests.
I’m not into the “down with the Big government! ” rhetoric but this is an absolutely ridiculous situation. Our department is certified by the state to award teacher certification. Why isn’t that enough to just let the graduates work in the schools that want them?
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m a nerd and autodidact. I read and write most of the day and it’s embarrassing how much I’ve wanted to be a teacher all of my life. The only reason I am not is essentially the focus of your post. Thank you so much for highlighting the issue. I hope you think you’re in a position to help effect some change in this arena as well, so keep us posted.
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“I hope you think you’re in a position to help effect some change in this arena as well, so keep us posted.”
– I’m not a citizen and can’t even vote let alone influence such things. 🙂 But thanks for the confidence.
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A very frustrating story indeed. What makes it worse is that most states are actually pretty lax when it comes to testing the actual language proficiency and cultural knowledge of foreign language teachers.
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I know testing trig and geometry is silly, but how hard can the test really be? I’m guessing he could put in 5 hours or so of studying – even less with a tutor – and pass it fine.
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I prepared for months for the GRE before grad school and still bombed the math part. So I won’t judge people who can’t pass such tests. I’m in general completely incapable of absorbing information unless I believe I need to know that information. It’s a neurological peculiarity. 🙂 But I think it’s a useful one.
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The teacher in question can’t start working at the school that wants him because he keeps failing the trig and geometry portion of one of the five teacher certification tests mandated by the state. If you are planning to ask why a teacher of German needs to pass an exam in trig, please ask someone else. I’m clueless about the logic of this process.
I’m guessing they want to be able to have German teachers be able to teach trigonometry and geometry in a pinch, since they consider geometry and trigonometry to be more essential than any foreign language program.
In addition, the key word for students is “well rounded” and if they keep pushing students to be “well rounded” they cannot allow anyone with significantly lopsided gifts to be a high school teacher.
They should really focus on pedagogy because most math teachers are absolutely worthless at teaching beyond kill and drill and most people don’t notice because they assume that if you don’t thrive in such a regime you must be a choice dullard. Whereas if you can do calculus but can barely write a coherent letter everyone falls over themselves to proclaim your genius.
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It sounds like creeping credentialism and the more centralized the standardizing authority the worse it’s going to get (a note to all those hankering for a national curriculum).
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Back in the 80s, when I got my first degree (French), I was all set to be a teacher. But the schools didn’t want a French major; they wanted an education major with 15 hours of French and a reading certificate (so they could also teach reading). So lots of other things happened since then, and now I do medical research with a second degree in nursing.
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