<p>My daughter- who has attended private schools from K- college graduation, is planning on entering a Masters of education program at a Catholic University, where she would also be a student teacher at an associated K-8 school Or/interning for a year at a private elementary school in Seattle, before entering the Catholic school.</p>
<p>Which makes her feel " guilty".</p>
<p>Still, IMO * she* has always " increased" the diversity, at the private schools she attended.
She is white, but she is first gen college, from a blue collar, low middle income background- without support from beyond her immediate family to continue education.</p>
<p>( not to mention the learning disabilities & sexual orientation)</p>
<p>* I feel* on the one hand, having volunteered in the Seattle school district for the past twenty years, that while public schools are needed and my younger daughter attended them, that to initially be trained as a public school teacher- ( at least in Seattle), is to be considered only as good as whatever the administration decides the curriculum for * this year* will be.
( which given their recent past history, is not very good)
Ha- * not very good* is the understatement of the decade.</p>
<p>I am inclined to advise her to get trained in the private program- because my impression is that she will learn how to be a successful classroom teacher who will be skilled with experiential cross grade learning, and then if she still wants to, to take that experience to the public schools- instead of learning off the bat, that you aren’t allowed to be innovative or creative, if that means that you deviate from teaching the page of the day.</p>
<p>The public school will likely give her much more practice in “classroom management”, a key skill for teachers. D1 teaches academic subjects through an inner city summer school, and she rocks at classroom management.</p>
<p>Is the sexual orientation issue possibly a problem for a teacher at a Catholic school? Could she face reprisal of some sort if she is out, or outed?</p>
<p>I forgot to add that since graduation four years ago, for most of the time, she has been working in the public schools, as science director for a before/after school program that is in several public schools in the Portland area.</p>
<p>I don’t think the universities in Washington ( at least going by comments from recent grads), excel at student teacher training or classroom management, but schools in Oregon may be better.</p>
<p>I don’t think she would have a problem- at the Catholic school, she has a friend who is already in the program- and schools in our area, are generally pretty liberal.</p>
<p>Several Catholic high schools for example, stage * The Laramie Project* as a show of support.</p>
<p>Most of my teachers were trained to become teachers in Washington universities and like any group of people, their training and classroom management could be hit or miss. I usually ended up with the better quality teachers for one reason or another. For training purposes, I’m thinking the private school route would be better, but when she gets to teaching, I’d encourage her to get both WA and OR licenses and look into teaching public school. There still is a good amount of freedom if you get into the right situation and the pay appears to be better. In the districts where I attended school, it was 2 years and you have tenure, which allows a teacher to be much more innovative. Getting back to the training part, it’s really hard to say which would be better. I doubt your D’s sexual orientation would be an issue at either school.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago there was a fabulous article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine about teacher training, called Building a Better Teacher. I recommend you and your daughter read it.</p>
<p>I also want to commend your daughter for her current and future hands on experience with teaching before committing to this as a career. I happen to think that one of the greatest problems for education is the number of people who major in education without any sense of what teaching really is. By the time they get to student teaching, they have invested to much to change their minds.</p>
<p>Um–Catholic high schools aren’t always tolerant.</p>
<p>One here in New England fired a successful football coach because he fathered a child out of wedlock. He was devoted to the mother, they agreed NOT to abort the pregnancy, and “chose life”, and was canned for it.</p>
<p>He was devoted to the mother, they agreed NOT to abort the pregnancy, and “chose life”, and was canned for it.</p>
<p>Wow- our current school superintendent, became pregnant before she was married( in South Carolina- where she was superintendent of Charleston County & married three months before their baby was born all in her first year of being hired. Busy year)
Which would be fairly unusual around here- especially when you are in your 40’s, but perhaps she was like a friend of mine, and didn’t think she could get pregnant.</p>
<p>That seems a little * unforgiving* MADad- did parents make a fuss one way or another?</p>
<p>Dragonmom- yes I think D will be a great teacher- of course she has been in the classrooms for the past few years in Portland public schools- so I think she probably has a good idea of what she is getting into.</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t be surprised if my younger D eventually goes into education in some way. She is also planning on a biology degree, but her summer jobs have usually been child centered and on top of that- unlike her sister ( but like me ), she prefers middle school kids to elementary age kids.
Elementary age- are sweet and fun, but pre-teens are so * interesting*.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic…but…I would suggest anyone entering or in the teaching profession read Frank McCourt’s “Teacher Man”. Third book in his biographical trilogy.</p>
<p>Better yet…get the audio book and listen to him read it. Mesmerizing story telling, enlightening and uplifting.</p>
<p>I haven’t read any of his stuff since I tried to read Angela’s Ashes , and it was so tough going, I thought slitting my wrists would be easier than finishing it.</p>
<p>But I will tell D about the audio, she has been getting podcasts to listen to while she does mending.</p>
<p>I actually have to echo MA’s story. A kindergarten teacher (that everyone adored) from my K-8 Catholic school got fired because she was only engaged when she got pregnant. She even married the dad right away (as in as soon as possible, so she was about 4 months along), but the people in charge did the math and fired her. </p>
<p>And at a Catholic high school in the area came out after pictures of her surfaced of her and her girlfriend. She was promptly fired and threated to sue the school, so she was hired back as something other than a teacher (maybe a secretary or something? Can’t remember.). She quit and is now teaching at a public high school. </p>
<p>I guess Catholic schools around here are pretty conservative. Everyone just sort of knows that if you’re not straight or have a kid out of wedlock, you are not going to be a teacher. Even divorce is not really accepted. Meh.</p>
<p>EK- It sounds like your daughter got into a wonderful school. Congratulations to you and her :)</p>
<p>Teacher man disappointed me, frankly. The chapters describing his experiences in teaching were interspersed with flashbacks to his past that seemed like re-hashes of his first two books.</p>
<p>Too much Angela’s Ashes/Tis and not enough Teacher Man.</p>
), she prefers middle school kids to elementary age kids.