Professionalism and the Future of Teachers

I hit a wall today hard. With a loud thud. I feel a little like a caged animal, trapped without realizing I had stepped into the cage, and struggling to find a way out.  So here's the story, but here is the background first.

When I came to North Carolina, I finished a Ph.D. in Music Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.  That entailed a 6-hour test over music theory and history to get into the university (I passed and didn't have to take remediation coursework).  I had to take a written comprehensive examination that required three 8-hour days, nine questions, and about 60 pages of words.  All out of my noggin, not using any resources.  Then I had to go in front of a committee for my oral examination.  I passed with distinction.  I wrote a dissertation, and I passed the oral examination/presentation required as my final hurdle.  I was hooded in the fine month of May, 2011, graduating from UNCG. 

I started teaching at ECU in the Fall of 2011, and was required to pay the $55 for a NC Teaching License in order to teach teachers how to teach. Okay.  I can do that.  I have 27 years of teaching experience in Indiana, a life license there with a Master's degree and 28 hours past my masters, PLUS now the doctorate.  I have papers, if not the pedigree, to do the job.  A formality, right?

Here's the catch.  The state of North Carolina has determined that I must take 7.5 CEU's every THREE years and pay $55 to renew the license, and I am not considered a 'teacher''.  I am only allowed to teach teachers. No, wait, there is 'good' news!  I can be considered a REAL teacher, if I take the Praxis II for music and if I pass.  Then I can have a license that requires me to turn in 7.5 CEU's every FIVE years, and pay $55 to renew my license.  Over the course of the time I intend to teach, that is about $210 the state will have collected in 'fees'.  Hmmm...

Might I say, that I am not only humiliated, exasperated, but also insulted.  Insulted that politicians think they know better than someone who has spent a lifetime in education, how one might best do the job.  When I heard I would need to pass the Praxis II, I thought of the written driving tests.  Just because you can pass one doesn't mean you should be on the road driving.  I have been 'driving' as an educational expert for a while now, and that should count.  My experience should be respected.  My degree, from an institution in the same state, should be respected. 

I am not upset that I would need certification of some kind. Nor that I have to renew it.  I am upset that if I keep the license without being a "real" teacher, I have to take MORE courses (CEU's) to do so.  Why?  Doesn't my degree buy me something? How about all the time I have spent in the classroom? I need to be policed as a beginning teacher the entire time I am teaching in NC? Doesn't anyone get this?

What other profession allows people from outside the area of study to determine what is best for certification for entry into the profession?  Do beauty schools have electricians determining licensing? Do doctors allow plumbers to set the standards for practice? And would plumbers want musicians setting their practice standards?  When will educational professionals be allowed to determine what is best for them? Why should a university professor take the same test as an undergraduate preservice teacher in order to be licensed? Haven't they been tested enough?  We have rules set by the National Association of Schools of Music, with guidelines for accreditation.  We police ourselves in higher education, and sometimes that means things move slowly, but it also means that we hold our own feet to the fire.  So why are the politicians determining what the guidelines should be for teacher educators? Why are we not allowed to determine this?

I am angry. And I know that it is only a test, and I could take it and shut up.  But that doesn't solve the problem of treating teachers, and in this particular breath teacher-educators, as consummate professionals.  I have given time, energy, and the better part of my life to this career.  I don't think I need to prove anything to anyone for a piece of $55 dollar paper that says what my degree already says. I can do this. I am doing this.  And if we don't stand up and fight for this, when will it change? Taking any test, and continuing to PAY to do my job is ridiculous. I have been tested enough and I am done with this nonsense.

There is my wall.  Thud.