TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing to offer a respectful (if complete) disagreement with Deborah Eaker-Rich, assistant dean in the School of Education, who has written The Daily Tar Heel to argue that an undergraduate program in education is the only viable means to a career in teaching (“Degree in education is best preparation for career,” Oct. 27). Based on my many years of preparing UNC undergraduates to teach in the public schools, I am convinced that anyone considering such a vocation should take the following four steps.
First, spend your years at Carolina cultivating your knowledge and passion for your chosen subject. Second, honestly assess whether you have a hunger to share that knowledge and passion with others. Third, undertake an MAT program, let us hope one that absorbs only a year of your life, in order to clarify in your mind at which level you want to teach. Fourth, get in the classroom, give it your all every day, and be ready constantly to revise your practices.
Frankly, and with all due respect, very little else matters for what it really and truly means to be a teacher.
Reid Barbour
Professor
English
