Alternative Paths to Getting a Teaching Certificate

Today, in the education section of nytimes.com I read an pretty interesting article called Alternative Education for Teachers Gains Ground. It goes along with my wiki actually, talking about other opportunities people have that want to become teachers.

Apparently the teaching profession used to be pretty strict.

They dictated how and when people became teachers by offering coursework, arranging apprenticeships and granting master’s degrees.

However, now the most prominent and prestigious schools of education in the country are being harshly criticized, saying that they focus way too much on theory and not nearly enough on good teaching methods through experience.

Once we graduate we're going to have to compete with people that have joined alternative programs, like Teach for America. These programs take any person that has a bachelor's degree, gives them teaching jobs, and they don't even have any prior experience teaching or learning about teaching.

Now, maybe these programs will be able to certify their own teachers.

I'm kind of on the fence about all of this though. On the one hand, this upsets me because, personally, I've been going to MSU, paying the tuition, studying hard, having to take a lot of classes I didn't feel benefited me very much, to finally get a bachelor's degree in education. I agree with the some of criticism education programs have had to endure. I haven't had much experience actually teaching, learning first-hand what to do. Most of the knowledge I have gained so far has been from books, coursework, and hearing about other teachers' experiences.

Nevertheless, I still have another year before I get my degree and I have no idea what my courses will require me to do. Also, even though I feel like a lot of the courses I've taken weren't of much benefit to me at the time, maybe I just wasn't seeing the big picture. All of the theory will probably come in handy in the future when I'm in situations that would help me understand how to solve certain problems.

Photo from a wordpress.com blog - playthink

What do you think about alternative programs? Do you think they're preparing their teachers in a better way? Are we, MSU education majors, wasting our time here? The teachers in the alternative programs have bachelors in a specific field and know it very well, but does that mean they're qualified to go and teach?