Who's a teacher now then?

The Conservative Party has proposed that only people with high grade Honers degrees will be allowed to teach in schools. You can tell that these people have never really experienced schools as the majority of us know them or they could never come out with such rubbish. I have met many very intelligent people with a list of degrees as long as your arm who couldn't teach you how to boil water. I also know people who can barely read and write who are brilliant teachers. When I was at school teachers went to teacher training college and left with a teaching certificate. A select few went on to get a B.Ed. but by that time they had served their apprenticeship in a wide range of schools. I was taught by a range of good teachers who were not hogtied by National Curriculum's and league tables. Not only did they teach me the subjects on the time table but they taught us about life-things as well (including how to handle our drink properly).

There is an idea prevalent these days that being educated is about passing exams and gathering together the certificates that go with these passes. The "Gradgrime" factor of "teach 'em facts and nothing but facts" is great if you want to win mastermind but not much use if you need to undertake a project to find thinks out. It doesn't give you research skills, and it is these that we are all going to need in the future whether we are researching in books or on the Internet. Facts are only of use if you know how to find them at put them together in new, innovative ways. Regurgitating the same old stuff will never allow us to progress, or to add to the mass of fact.

But back to the question of who should be "allowed" to teach young people. If I wanted to be a plumber I do not need to be taught by an expert in fluid dynamics but I do need to be taught by someone who can light a blow lamp. A farrier will know as much about the anatomy of a horse as the average zoologist and I know who I would want to show any horse of mine (along with his apprentice).

I suppose we have to expect stupid, unthinking proposals like this from the Conservative Party, it's the sort of idea thing we have come to expect from them. And of course the red and yellow bits of the red-yellow-blue coalition has to come out with their own daft idea so as not to be left behind. Fortunately the is a Political party that is going to be speaking sense throughout the coming month of General Electioneering, and that of course is the Green Party. So, please do yourself and the rest of the world a big favour and vote Green Party where you can at the General Election when it comes.

Vote for

Julia Erskine

Green Party Candidate for the

Tynemouth Constituency