Since moving to the Los Angeles area in August, I have been following your "Reading by 9" campaign and articles with interest.

As an elementary teacher with eight years' experience, a two-time grant winner for enrichment activities for my classroom and the holder of a master's degree in education, I can't get a substitute's job in California. Working with my local school district, I was told I have to pass the CBEST (California Basic Educational Skills Test) in order to be put on the substitute list. Apparently, taking the National Teacher's Exam doesn't even satisfy the state of California.

If California is really serious about improving the abysmal reading scores of its children, perhaps it should eliminate some of the bureaucratic roadblocks that prevent qualified people in its midst from teaching.

Janet Dain-Faris

Santa Monica

--Los Angeles Times, 27 October 1998, B6.

Can anyone suggest the type job an 18 year old HS graduate can apply for? (assuming they are not planning to go to college). Al

If he/she were 7 years older, he/she could work as a substitute teacher in the public schools in Bowling Green, KY. Apparently, they are desperate enough to hire people with only high school diplomas, provided they are at least 25 years old (hence less likely to identify with the age group they are given responsibility for managing) and have 3 days of training. Apparently they are not yet desperate enough to hire PhD's with years of teaching experience in universities and no teaching certificates.

Allan Adler

--from dejanews board, mid-September 1998(reprinted with permission of the author)

Transportation:

Back

to educational folly home page

An Open Letter to Torrance Unified

another bizarre interview