University of Virginia Library

College, Education School Relations
Demonstrate Lack Of Coordination

By BARBARA HAND

Photo By Lovelace Cook

Some Students Resort To Parachutes For Shelter

Sleep-in Participants Bundle Up For Protection Against Frigid Temperatures

Lack of coordination between the
School of Education and the College of
Arts and Sciences has been cited by
students, professors, and administrators
as causing misunderstandings between the
two schools.

Among the complaints that have been
raised are the lack of education courses
available to non-education majors,
discrepancies in the advising systems of
the two schools, and the University's failure to
provide a program to qualify state-certified
language teachers.

Michael S. Caldwell, associate dean of the
School of Education, commented, "We
encourage students outside of the Education
School to take electives in our school.
Education courses 9, 10, and 11 are open to
everyone. If students did get closed out of our
program this semester it was because the classes
were full."

"It was not a conscious effort to cut
non-students." He said, "Let's be realistic. We
are always one step behind. We will continue to
expand as long as data indicates desire and need
for more courses."

Little coordination between the advising
programs of the two schools was noted by
faculty members. Jerry Moore, chairman of the
School of Education curriculum and instruction
department, said, "The advising program in the
College does not provide for all the interests of
the students."

Job Problems

"Students," he added, "do not realize until
it is to late the problems they will have getting
teaching jobs if they don't have the proper
education courses. It is very unlikely that any
student with a B.A. degree in the College will
find a teaching job where he wants it."

Mr. Caldwell, explaining the advising
situation, said that "those students who have a
desire to become teachers go into the College
for their first and second years.

"When a student talks with his College
advisor, he is advised as if he is a fourth-year
College student. That is appropriate. But we
would like any student who has even a glimmer
of being a teacher to come to the Education
School to be advised," he said.

One professor in the English Department
remarked that "the Education School thinks
that what is important is the method (of
teaching). I feel that content is more
important."

"A teacher may know the information, but
he must also know how to get it across to his
students."

Mr. Caldwell said that "the purpose of the
Education School is to teach method. It is the
job of the College to teach 'content'." He
stated that of the 126 semester hours necessary
for the B.S. in Education, only 21 hours are in
education and the other 105 hours are in the
fields of the student's choice."

A proposal being considered now is to allow
students to earn two degrees, the B.S. in
education and the B.A. in the College, if the
student has 21 hours of required education
courses and also has completed the arts and
sciences requirement. If the college student has
taken some of his 15 elective hours in the
Education School, it would be possible for him
to finish his education courses in one additional
semester.

Course Deficiency

The School of Education does not provide
any of the necessary education courses
pertaining to languages for those students who
wish to become language teachers. Helene Dick,
a third-year College student who says she
intends to become a language teacher said that
"at the present time there does not exist any
program by which a foreign language major in
the College can, upon graduation from the
University, qualify for certification as a
secondary school teacher."

"I should think," Miss Dick continued,
"that it would be to the University's credit to
graduate qualified high school language teachers
especially since a knowledge of foreign language
is considered essential in high schools and
universities today."