Honokaa teaching policy is the same everywhere
Honokaa High Principal Marcella McClellan is in trouble for putting teachers into classes outside their field. So what’s the problem? Every principal does that.
I hate to break it to you trusting parents, but some of your children’s teachers are not properly trained to teach your kids.
Everyone in school knows this. It is a proverb and a truism that every other teacher in school has the wrong credential. English majors are teaching SPED classes, social studies people are in physical education. It’s as mixed up as the Catch-22.
It was a shock to see that the principal was suspended for doing the usual.
I looked up the statistics on this “wrongful” hiring. According to the definitive study, “Out of Field Teaching” by Richard Ingersoll, which is easy to find on the Internet, the statistics on unqualified teachers is surprising.
Nationwide, (Hawaii is probably close to these figures), the percentages of teachers in grades seven through 12 with no degree in the subject they are teaching are as follows: English, 24 percent are unqualified; math, 31 percent; science, 20 percent; life science, 33 percent; physical science, 57 percent; social studies, 20 percent; and history, 53 percent. At the elementary level, 12 percent, or 1 in 8, are unqualified to be there.
Over half the physical science teachers and history teachers in the U.S. do not have a diploma in their subject. Literally millions of improperly educated people are in our schools.
Every day in Hawaii, almost 3,000 substitute teachers and (following statistics) 3,000 regular teachers are teaching subjects they never took one class in.
I earned my Hawaii teaching certificate in English and they had me teaching special education. That was back in 1990, so this practice has been going on for at least 25 years.
Are we to believe that people in Honokaa are so far out in the cane field that they don’t know this? Should we believe the Department of Education officials don’t know who is being hired in our schools? Of course not, they read every resume.
The truth is, Honokaa High was operating just fine until someone stuck their ill-informed nose into things. Why the DOE went along is a mystery.
Ms. McClellan did nothing wrong. She followed school policy. She just ran into yet another ridiculous situation that only happens in Hawaii — in her case, getting suspended for doing her job.
The real issue is whether anyone, especially school principals, has the decency, honor and integrity to stand up and defend this poor lady.
I have faith that principals have principles.
Dennis Gregory
Kailua-Kona
It’s not public access for those off Internet
The manager of the Na Leo TV station is giving Oceanic Cable customers “Obamacare” for our TV screen. It is nonsense for the station to tell viewers to log on to its program guide. How can it be called a public access TV station when only the cyber-elites can know when the shows come on?
My free Big Island TV Guide is worthless. It tells me what people on Oahu are watching.
Na Leo’s new manager makes fools out of his viewers when he tells non-cyber customers to just call the station for program information. How do we know which program to ask for when we don’t know what the lineup is? We are the butt of their joke when we call up during off hours because an answering machine tells us to leave a message. This is a Rap Rippinger video. Cheeseburger anyone?
People are willing pay for Ray Bradbury and Franz Kafka novels about brainwashing and oppressive bureaucrats. Oceanic Cable takes our money and gives it to Na Leo. We are robbed of $1 million a year to keep Na Leo’s carnival on the air. Its GOV 55 channel is the most dysfunctional channel on the dial. This is a Keystone Kopps movie.
Nobody wants to open this can of worms. So that’s who I’m voting for — nobody. I vote for only one item on the ballot, and leave the rest blank. I’ll pay $5 for a newspaper that prints the blank ballot count. Please don’t tell me to go log on to County Clerk Stuart Maeda’s elections website.
Jerry Warren
Naalehu