Professionals and Teaching: Should The Requirements be Less?

In January 2010 I will be a high school business teacher.  I used to think that anyone could teach however,I realize now that teaching is a calling.  I am in my 7th week of student teaching and I will tell you I am getting an excellent education in classroom management & building relationships with students. 

I think it would be a huge mistake to lower teaching requirements for professionals that don’t have a teaching license.  Developing relationships with students is by far the most important part of being a teacher.  Anyone can learn content and be able to teach the content to the students.  It takes a special person to develop healthy relationships with students.  If a teacher is able to master relationship development then classroom management becomes much easier.  I believe if the requirements were less for professionals coming into the field of teaching, they would not have some of the necessary classes or experiences that would be needed for the job.

In closing I would just like to say that I am not opposed to professionals coming into the field of secondary teaching.  We need more people like this that want to help secondary students succeed.  I just hope that the requirements are kept where they are now without short cuts to the classroom.  Professionals do have a place in today’s secondary classrooms however, not at the expense of the students.