Teacher Qualifications

We hear all sorts of things about teachers. That it's an easy job, anyone could do it. That we're glorified (overpaid?) babysitters.

Or good old George Bernard Shaw, who said, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

And as someone added, "Those who can't teach, teach teachers."

As someone who has taught for 22 years in the USVI, two years in the US, and two years in Liberia (with the Peace Corps), I say to them $*&&#@() !!!!!!

Imagine being a corporate something. Could you corral eighteen early adolescents and get them to work together?

Or you're an attorney. Could you get three classes of students to sit and write letters?

Mr. CEO and Ms. CFO (or the reverse) - have you created something that will impact students for years to come? Until the building falls down?


Hhhhmph. Okay, so I went to school and took classes in education and educational alternatives. I also studied art. I studied murals under two American muralists, Lucienne Bloch and her husband Stephen Pope Dimitroff - both of whom worked with Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. I learned to fresco and do mosaic, to design a mural, to work collaboratively.

And before Peace Corps, I completed a quilt working with Judy Chicago's Birth Project - a small quilt, another collaboration. After my return to the US, I worked at the Birth Project, helping mount artwork for display, assist in quilting a creation quilt, and generally do whatever was needed artistically.

Without those experiences, I couldn't have completed this mural project. But without my teacher training PLUS all those years of teaching, I couldn't have worked with my 60 or so students to create this mural.

I'd like to see Mr. Shaw create a 250 sq ft mural with 60 early teens. Hhhhmph!