<p>I think that the statistic is that 50% of recent college grads are either unemployed or working in a job that doesn’t require a college degree.</p>
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<p>I haven’t lost hope either. I’m actually fairly optimistic.</p>
<p>I read an article about the two trillion barrels of shale oil in the United States and the vast natural gas reserves that are being developed that are lowing energy costs in the United States. Natural gas is $18/million BTUs in Japan. It’s $3 in the United States. Can you say manufacturing cost advantage?</p>
<p>Look at the situation in the Middle East with Syria, Iran and Israel. Ten years ago, this kind of unrest would have oil spiking higher because of oil supply threats. Today, the price of oil just yawns.</p>
<p>My local supermarket now has a young lady that stands near the door on weekends and hands shopping carts to customers. That’s a pretty nice service but it also prevents traffic jams near the registers.</p>
<p>If we run out of WalMart greeters, we could use lifelike robots for the task.</p>
<p>This has not been my experience at all. I am taking education classes now in order to earn my teaching certification. It seems like EVERY class I take is largely focused on how to teach - everything from effective lesson plans to multiple teaching strategies to different assessment approaches. Many classes also include a practicum component (before the actual student teaching begins) which means more lesson plans and pedagogy requirements. </p>
<p>It’s like the earlier statement about school systems - we also have no overall system for training teachers. What may be true in one state is not true in another.</p>
<p>Business cycles are cyclical because because a lot of factors ebb and flow. One of which is availability of skilled labor. Back in 2007 when unemployment was 4% there was a shortage of skilled labor in a lot of fields. I had friends who had to scrub a business plan when they couldnt keep the right people in place at the right locations. There was just too much competition for scare skills. </p>
<p>Subsequently a lot of large corps shook loose a lot of talented employees into the market and there is a lot of pent up talent that was underutilized in corporations that can now be better utilized in smaller companies. </p>
<p>If you want to see this on the micro level, in 2007 you couldnt find a person to talk to in Home Depot and if you did there was no way they actually knew anything. Now you can get decent plumbing advice, advice on tile techniques, all kind of expert info. And the employes ask <em>you</em> if you need help. I am sure that there are now a lot of DIY projects that are getting done now, and it is indirectly attributable to the unemployment rate being so high.</p>
<p>I remember trying to get a screen door put in in the early 1990s. I had tried to find someone to do it earlier but there was a building boom going on and it was hard to find a skilled contractor to even come over to look at it. Then times got tougher for builders and I was able to get someone to install the door for me. Later on it got hard to find people again. There are lots of times when I’ll call people (friend of a friend) asking if they’ll do some work and I never hear from them. I think that good people are often busy. The drywall guy that I play tennis with hasn’t had a problem getting work for his company in the last decade.</p>
<p>I cannot stand how our local public schools teach math. I end up teaching it at home. My high schoolers do not even take math at the public schools anymore. No way will I ever let my children take math at the schools again. Yuck!</p>
<p>My mother just reminded me of an incident from my childhood: second grade, to be precise. I used to like answering math questions that my father (an engineer) posed to my sister, who was 5 years older. Apparently, I would often come up with the right answer, and he would ask me to explain how I figured it out. When we were waiting in the car for his train to arrive every evening, I would often ask my mother for a list of figures to add up in my head or some other kind of arithmetic problem in order to pass the time. Then, in second grade, we had to memorize the multiplication tables, and my teacher (who was rather a witch), instructed me thus: “Don’t think, memorize!” The next time my father posed a problem, I earnestly said, “Miss X says I shouldn’t think, I should memorize!” They were appalled. But unfortunately didn’t do anything about it, but that was another time.</p>
<p>Fast forward to HS. I am in sophomore year math class: Algebra II. Having just returned from several years in another country, the vice principal–who was one of those coaches who became VPs–placed me in all non-honors classes, saying that the honors classes were “full.” (This was eventually rectified in most subjects, but not math. although I remained accelerated.) I am lousy at memorizing formulas, but do much better if I know how they are derived. Our teacher gives tests that are based solely on remembering a laundry list of formulas. I go to her and ask how something is derived. She looks me in the eye and says, “You don’t need to know that.”</p>
<p>I am fairly sure that I would have thrived with the kind of math instruction that encourages kids to discover ways to solve problems rather than drilling them. Chicago math, for example. This is, of course, the kind of math that many love to hate…</p>
<p>Critical thinking classes are virtually gone in high schools, and nowadays you get anyone with a bachelors degree teaching you a subject they didnt go to college for, but they need a job, and these 21-30 year old ‘kids’ treat school like a job, not a career, and still go out an d party.</p>
<p>We can tell they are hung over, we can tell when they dont know something, and this is the new ‘norm’ of teachers teaching us. How are we supposed to care if they dont? Dont get me wrong, I have had a few ‘inspiring’ teachers, but overwhelmingly we are loosing focus on education and turning toward everyone wanting to be the center of the universe.</p>
<p>gator4eva–really, that is what you have in your school? Probably why they are at the bottom–not something seen here, EVER. First, you can’t teach in our state without a degree in your subject, second, show up drunk to school and your rear is out the door, rapidly.</p>
<p>IME, it was just as hit or miss when I had teachers with education degrees. </p>
<p>Something which was only confirmed by several K-12 teacher friends who found the Ed school teacher training was too theoretical, too faddish at times, and often inapplicable to the classroom situations they ended up getting during their practicums and moreso…once they graduated. </p>
<p>It’s a reason why I look with skepticism at those who criticize college Profs for not getting teacher/pedagogical training from Ed schools. IME, the college Profs without Ed school training were almost always much better teachers than the K-12 teachers I’ve had with ed school training. </p>
<p>Only exceptions IME were the HS teachers who had academic (PhD) or professional doctorates(Columbia U MD)</p>
<p>I’ve beaten him more times this year than he’s beaten me. Basically if he doesn’t win the first two sets, he loses. I can play hard for three hours, in 90 degree humid days. He’s a much bigger guy (hits a lot harder too - had his serve measured at 120+ MPH on radar). But he has more weight to carry around and I’m a runner.</p>
<p>They call it something else. Provisional, temporary, in-process. The standard might say that teachers have to have a degree in their subject. But there is always an out that a superintendent can take advantage of if they need more people.</p>
<p>^^^ Nope, not in my state. Not ever. No provisional, no temporary, no in-process licenses. No outs for the superintendents in my state.</p>
<p>In this state, you can’t even student teach without a degree in your major AND without passing a test in your major subject (and believe me, that test is no cake walk).</p>
<p>Lots of these stories around. Think how bad things would get if there was no attempt to measure teacher performance.</p>
<p>"Mumford faces more than 60 fraud and conspiracy charges that claim he created fake driver’s licenses with the information of a teacher or an aspiring teacher and attached the photograph of a test-taker. Prospective teachers are accused of giving Mumford their Social Security numbers for him to make the fake identities.</p>
<p>The hired-test takers went to testing centers, showed the proctor the fake license, and passed the certification exam, prosecutors say. Then, the aspiring teacher used the test score to secure a job with a public school district, the indictment alleges. Fourteen people have been charged with mail and Social Security fraud, and four people have pleaded guilty to charges associated with the scheme."</p>
<p>argbargy–not in our state. The only “exception” would be someone with a degree in an area that doesn’t have their teaching credentials. Say a chemist that has worked in a research lab for 20 years and wants to become a teacher. They can get an exemption for up to 2 years for that person to teach but they have to also work on their education degree in that time. But they already have a degree in their subject area. Superintendents can’t overrule that because it’s state law.</p>