Teachers, Integrity, Communicating Subject Matter

[Kerry]

For decades, nationwide, high school teachers, using everything they learned about communication as education majors, cause 25% of their students applying for college to have to pay for remedial courses to enter a college/university. 

This is a financially motivated policy; the option being, to do what it takes to teach education majors to communicate subject matter--specifically to offer and require a 4-year Leadership Training Program for health-care and education majors. 

Most people are unaware of the conversations college/university administrators have about standards. They have conversations such as, "Shall we teach education majors to communicate subject matter, or, shall we provide watered down easy speech-communication courses so as to cause high school students to have to pay us for remedial courses?" Yes, those decisions are argued about and made consciously.¹

What we're looking at is the integrity of an educator accepting pay for not teaching as they know is possible (euphemistically referred to as a "tough but fair" teacher) the unconscious commitment to mediocrity, often manifested as unsatisfying fundings and "burn-out." We're looking at the consequences, the karma, (the effects this has on a teacher's personal life and relationships, especially a teacher's own child) of not feeling good about this perpetration but still accepting a salary.

For example: A Chairman of a university Speech-Communication Department is tasked with teaching education majors to communicate subject matter, no excuses, no reasons. To do this educators must demonstrate the level of integrity it takes to cause another to consistently re-create their communications; this can't be done using the existing Adversarial Communication Model taught throughout our education system?characterized by getting ahead at the expense of others, withholding, deceiving, and blaming. I.e.  Most educators will confirm that today's Sp-Com courses are among the easiest--this, rather than having the reputation of being the most demanding of all university courses.<sup>2 

1</sup>  To "teach," to create space for, to model communication, one must first be willing to acknowledge one's addictions--to withholding, to blaming, to deceiving, and to badmouthing. What happens during such a curriculum is that one confronts and completes his/her incompletes having to do with life's unacknowledged perpetrations (lies, abuses, thefts) and, each and every incident of anger. A teacher must know how to get, to be-with, and to disappear, a student's/parent's anger; this leadership skill requires training; specifically, a Leadership Training Program. I'm unaware of any college or university that offers or requires leadership training for education majors. Such a program requires 3-hours per week for all four years and, later as a teacher, bi-monthly support groups for life. An important part of applying to be an education major is the three-hour interview with the Trainer, the applicant and his/her parents.

²  High school students would know that college-bound health-care and education majors are required to complete The Clearing Process for Professionals as a prerequisite for enrolling in the four-year-long Leadership Training Program. It would be understood that Leadership Training Program students must have a willingness to maintain clean relationships with friends and family. Such a curriculum would result in fewer education majors for the first few years but eventually result in a high demand for such graduates.

I write here because I don't yet have the leadership-communication skills it takes to have a mutually satisfying conversation about this subject mater with any university/college President/Chancellor. From prior experiences I predict that such an interaction would trigger reactions such as: "Yes, I agree." "I understand." "However, you must understand..." "Unfortunately we can't afford to implement such a program because it would have a high attrition rate; too many students would quit in anger. We need teachers." About me.


Last edited 3/13/22