Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for life.
What about teaching a man carpentry, millwrighting, electrical or any of the multitude of trades that this province and country are in short supply of?
The Ministry of Education's Teachers Regulation Branch have granted Red Seal tradesmen with sufficient experience, as being equivalent to holding an academic degree. It is their hopes that by putting skilled and experienced tradesmen into high-school classrooms, more graduates will enter into traditional blue-collar careers to fill the massive void left by an aging and retiring workforce.
There is a caveat however and it is both presumptuous and insulting. The varying school districts, teachers union locals and the universities that should be welcoming these skilled, educated and experienced people to their ranks are shutting the doors in their faces. At this time only TRU in Kamloops and a joint venture at UBC/BCIT are accepting these people while the current arduous process of having tradesmen entering into the education programs at other universities, including our own, has hit a snag.
To teach English or mathematics you get a BA in one of these subjects, enter the two-year education program and voila, become a teacher. One would think based on the TRB's decision, that a tradesman can enter the education program and upon completion, teach their trade but unfortunately, you would be wrong.
The academics that run the various entities listed above, still believe the notion that "the shop-kids are dumb" and have decided in their infinite wisdom that tradesmen still need to get a degree before entering the education program. Imagine a carpenter needing a degree in history, English or philosophy to teach carpentry? Why not marine biology?
In short, enter university at eighteen, get a degree, enter the education program, teach. Tradesmen would then have to enter the workforce, get an apprenticeship that is four or five years and which would include substantial class time for mathematics, English and comprehensive writing, gain the required thousands of hours, quit and then go back to university, get a degree in something completely unrelated and then go to the education program. Why? Because the institutions of education believe that a 24-year-old university arts graduate is better prepared to teach trades than a skilled, experienced tradesmen.
English teachers teach English. English teachers should not teach the trades.
Mike Maslen
Prince George
