I would challenge all of you who haven’t done so, to also go over and read Nobody Works Harder Than Teachers! You Sure About That?.

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For substituting it’s pretty much school system dependent. A High School diploma and willingness to work with Children meets the criteria in all the Counties in Maryland.

For teaching, and I’m interpreting your request in terms of certification, COMAR specifies a minimum of 15 credits in the core content and a total of 30 credits all total including allied studies. For instance, if you want to teach Chemistry you would need 15 credits in Chemistry and then another 15 credits in a science such Biology. Then you need between 5 – 6 courses in pedagogy, instructional theory, etc., along with passing PRAXIS I & II.

All you have to do is call one of your local Community Colleges or University and speak with someone in the Student Advisor Department. You might want to pursue an “Alternative Certification” program. Seems quite a few Community Colleges have such a program that pre-supposes a person has a BA/BS Degree.

Hope this helps … and … “Welcome to the Life.” Damn how I love that Stone Cold G stuff

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You are obviously a far kinder and gentle person than I. I want to line up all those who think teaching is just shy of a scam and have them independently staff classrooms with a nice mix of special needs students of the Autistic or ADD/ADHD variety during High Stakes Testing Week.

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I love what I do but some days it is exhausting!

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I can’t believe “I’m a-goin ta do dis” … but since we’re on the subject … how about this: Both the A.P.A. and A.M.A. have come out publicly and made the assertion that teaching is not a “true” profession because the academic curriculum that produces teachers lacks sufficient rigor. *Ducks and runs for cover*

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Ah yes, for want of a “real” world job. Well, let’s see, I’ve been a Carpenter (8 years), Commercial Fisherman (2 years), Soldier (6 years), Legal Representative (5 years), Litigation Paralegal (10 years) … and … a Teacher. I “think” I might have a bit of experience in the real world. IMO, as a day in and day out profession teaching tends to be more demanding. For starters, teaching is the only profession I’ve been in where the standards and taskings are determined by people completely outside the profession. Just something about career politicians dictating what, when, how and where in the teaching profession that seems more than a little “off”. After all, these are the same miscreants that provided bad governance sufficient to collapse the USA economy. I suppose being a Carpenter comes closest to the lunacy imposed on teachers by morons and those without any expertise in the profession. Architects are notorious for drawing pretty pictures that require building in a way totally contrary to physical laws, such as gravity. Then again, the “Go away you fool.” solution could always be employed, namely, give controlling weight to the Engineer prints. Not so with teaching. NCLB is just the most incarnation of repeatedly failed social engineering orchestrated by career politicos. This has been going on since at least 1964 with no end in sight.

Certainly the emotional involvement is far greater in teaching than anything I’ve been involved with in the past. A while back, a student of mine was waiting around my room after school had let out. Obviously, something was bothering her so I invited her to sit down and tell me whatever she felt like talking about. Turns out her drunkard Step-Father had been raping her on a regular basis for over a year and she couldn’t take the abuse any longer. I suppose I could have told her that in order to preserve my “full time pay for part time work” cushy job I couldn’t be bothered … but I didn’t. Instead, I stayed up most of the night answering questions posed by the police, Social Workers, and a Case Manager; all the while struggling to keep it together enough to be of some semblance of moral support for the poor Child, who was all of 15 years old at the time.

Oh, then there was the rather quiet Boy in one of my classes who suddenly stopped coming to school. I pressed the issue after a couple of days as there was no response to Attendance Office calls and emails. The police eventually went to the house and sure enough, there he was, sitting in the middle of the living room with his Mother … who had been dead for a few days. Drug overdose, combination of booze, Oxycontin, Valium, and Methadone I was told … by the Boy. He knows he can talk to me any time he wants and has availed himself of my willing to listen ears on several occasions now… even if it does screw up my part time status. “Funny”, but I can’t seem to recall any of the other professions I have been a part of ever having a lot of spill over past normal business hours.

As for the summer off … BORING. I can only hang out in Land of the Lotus Eaters for a week or two before I start to ping off the walls. I don’t know of any teacher that just chills for 2 1/2 months every summer. I know quite a few that deliver pizzas in order to make ends meet if they can’t get a Summer School teaching position. I know of some others that hang Sheet Rock or moon light as a Bartender. I’m considering getting a pizza delivery gig myself … just to keep busy … and pay my bills. I can’t recall ever having to work in another job to live a decent life before … must be one of the unstated down sides to working the part time job known as School Teacher.

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