Comments on: Schools Secretary Balls http://kelvinthroop.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/schools-secretary-balls/ Education failings, particularly in Science Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:32:28 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: dvnutrix http://kelvinthroop.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/schools-secretary-balls/#comment-25 dvnutrix Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:29:48 +0000 http://kelvinthroop.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/schools-secretary-balls/#comment-25 I take your point as to the compulsion involved but my initial reaction is that so many Masters courses are pale simulacrum of genuine scholarship and research that they are not worth having. Yet, I fully understand that some people (particularly teachers) have so little time that they have no choice but to select an undemanding qualification when this becomes box-checking. I also think that mandating a Masters seems absurd when too many times, too many teachers find themselves covering for subjects for which they are not qualified because of absent colleagues/unfilled posts. One of my relatives is qualified to PhD level in his own subject, however, he has recently had to teach Geography and Maths (subjects in which he has an O-Level education and the fact that these were O-Levels not GCSEs should say something about the contemporaneousness of his knowledge) because of staff shortages and lack of budget to hire appropriate cover. The majority of my older relatives were teachers and embody the belief that teaching is a vocation and one that they were privileged to follow. However, teaching has changed so much that they couldn't wait to retire. None of them could recommend it as a career and none of the current generation in my family is a teacher. Teachers and teaching have been undermined and politically abused for decades: sadly, there is no indication that this will change, no matter how powerful the rhetoric. Sorry for the length of this comment - this is a subject that makes me feel sad. I take your point as to the compulsion involved but my initial reaction is that so many Masters courses are pale simulacrum of genuine scholarship and research that they are not worth having. Yet, I fully understand that some people (particularly teachers) have so little time that they have no choice but to select an undemanding qualification when this becomes box-checking.

I also think that mandating a Masters seems absurd when too many times, too many teachers find themselves covering for subjects for which they are not qualified because of absent colleagues/unfilled posts. One of my relatives is qualified to PhD level in his own subject, however, he has recently had to teach Geography and Maths (subjects in which he has an O-Level education and the fact that these were O-Levels not GCSEs should say something about the contemporaneousness of his knowledge) because of staff shortages and lack of budget to hire appropriate cover.

The majority of my older relatives were teachers and embody the belief that teaching is a vocation and one that they were privileged to follow. However, teaching has changed so much that they couldn’t wait to retire. None of them could recommend it as a career and none of the current generation in my family is a teacher.

Teachers and teaching have been undermined and politically abused for decades: sadly, there is no indication that this will change, no matter how powerful the rhetoric.

Sorry for the length of this comment – this is a subject that makes me feel sad.

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