Easy teacher training for redundant bankers?
Can you really do a Teaching Certificate in 6 months and come out as a decent teacher?
Many feel that teaching is not a profession that can be learned easily, in some cases it doesn’t come naturally, so the argument we are hearing is that nurturing your class to get the best from them may not be a natural skill for the City ‘victims of the credit crunch’ for which the fast track scheme is being created to help.
These people are highly intelligent and commercially astute, but does this mean that their experience will transfer easily to teaching topics in a more rigid national curriculum, and engaging classes. Will this role really suit them?
The other obvious question is ‘are they being given extra privileges’? According to some reports some of these very people will be given bonus payments ‘ golden halos’ for taking headteacher positions in deprived areas. Sure, there are many headteachers who have worked incredibly hard to turn their schools around and some of these new ‘supercharged’ teachers’ may well bring some new skills to the table. But will any of these skills be a substitute for years of toil getting to grips with how to engage and motivate difficult pupils, who need more than a lesson in ‘playing the game’.
Update 16/3/09: it seems that we aren’t the only skeptics on this bit of spin. This columnist has strong views on just how the finance types will fit in:
Ah, do come in, Mr Blue-Chips, come in and serve us all your days. Let me take your BlackBerry and your cocaine spoon. You won’t be needing those. You’ll find a mortarboard and gown hanging up on the door and a sense of dignity and self-esteem waiting on your desk, along with a copy of The Guardian. Buttered crumpet? Crème de la crème? One stereotype or two?
