Who teaches the AP history classes at your child’s high school?

[Anonymous]

I don’t live in the DC area. I was looking at my zoned high school website and was surprised to find that the AP World History and Honors World History teacher has “only” a BS is social science education. He was also recently named the head football coach. Looking around the website, it seems that most of the social science teachers are also sports coaches. Is your child’s school the same?

[Anonymous]

Having an advanced degree doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher. And most teachers’ advanced degrees are in education, or something equally worthless, not in the subjects they teach.

[Anonymous]

PP. My child’s APUSH teacher has a BA from Liberty and is a coach of one of the HS teams, and he was excellent.

[Anonymous]

Many public high schools hire coaches and then pay them to be a “history teacher.” Coaches usually have good classroom management skills but little content knowledge. It’s a sad world that values sports so highly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having an advanced degree doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher. And most teachers’ advanced degrees are in education, or something equally worthless, not in the subjects they teach.

You don’t need to take every opportunity available to insult teachers.

Most teachers have advanced degrees. Some are in education, and many are not.
Heck, many of us don’t even have bachelor degrees in education. It isn’t required for certification.

OP,
Teaching is an art. You clearly need content knowledge. You also need to be able to effectively communicate, motivate, and even entertain. The worst teacher I’ve ever worked with had several advanced degrees. He was brilliant, but he couldn’t motivate or manage students. The best teacher I’ve ever worked with has a BA.

[Anonymous]

W school ours was an idiot football coach

Seriously lacking in educational skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having an advanced degree doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher. And most teachers’ advanced degrees are in education, or something equally worthless, not in the subjects they teach.

You don’t need to take every opportunity available to insult teachers.

Most teachers have advanced degrees. Some are in education, and many are not.
Heck, many of us don’t even have bachelor degrees in education. It isn’t required for certification.

OP,
Teaching is an art. You clearly need content knowledge. You also need to be able to effectively communicate, motivate, and even entertain. The worst teacher I’ve ever worked with had several advanced degrees. He was brilliant, but he couldn’t motivate or manage students. The best teacher I’ve ever worked with has a BA.

+1

The two worst teachers I’ve taught with in recent years had doctorates in their respective fields (HS so not an ed doctorate). Kids couldn’t stand them and they were ineffective at getting their content knowledge across to students. Both very smart but ineffective.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Hogewood

[Anonymous]

The two worst teachers I’ve taught with in recent years had doctorates in their respective fields (HS so not an ed doctorate). Kids couldn’t stand them and they were ineffective at getting their content knowledge across to students. Both very smart but ineffective.

So accurate. I have a master’s in my content area and even though I was “trained” to be adjunct faculty at my university, I was taught literally nothing in teaching methods. My master’s in education and student teaching experience prepared me far more than the content area education did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The two worst teachers I’ve taught with in recent years had doctorates in their respective fields (HS so not an ed doctorate). Kids couldn’t stand them and they were ineffective at getting their content knowledge across to students. Both very smart but ineffective.

So accurate. I have a master’s in my content area and even though I was “trained” to be adjunct faculty at my university, I was taught literally nothing in teaching methods. My master’s in education and student teaching experience prepared me far more than the content area education did.

My kid's chemistry teacher with a doctorate was the best teacher he ever had.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having an advanced degree doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher. And most teachers’ advanced degrees are in education, or something equally worthless, not in the subjects they teach.

You don’t need to take every opportunity available to insult teachers.

Most teachers have advanced degrees. Some are in education, and many are not.
Heck, many of us don’t even have bachelor degrees in education. It isn’t required for certification.

OP,
Teaching is an art. You clearly need content knowledge. You also need to be able to effectively communicate, motivate, and even entertain. The worst teacher I’ve ever worked with had several advanced degrees. He was brilliant, but he couldn’t motivate or manage students. The best teacher I’ve ever worked with has a BA.

Ex-teacher here. I agree with all of this post except the first sentence (the PP insulted college level Ed programs, but not teachers).

[Anonymous]

My kid is currently in APUSH. His teacher is also the varsity baseball coach. I have no idea where his degree is from, or what his highest level of education is. My kid took the AP exam about 2 weeks ago, and said he felt prepared and like he did well. That's what matters to me.

[Anonymous]

Is there a reason you think AP classes should have better teachers than other classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a reason you think AP classes should have better teachers than other classes?

The material is more advanced, so teachers should have a greater degree of subject matter knowledge. Same reason why people think high school teachers should have more subject matter knowledge than middle school teachers

[Anonymous]

I have two advanced degrees in fields unrelated to history or education, but the intelligence that enabled me to complete those degrees makes me able to learn new content. I have taught AP history/social studies courses for the last 13 years with an 87% pass rate. While I have seen some AP teachers that are not adequately educated for their courses, nearly all have been dedicated to try learning that content. Just look out for the first year or two that someone is teaching a new course; your student will need to do outside preparation.