Call me elitist if you want..

[poppet2]

So an excellent grounding in Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry is not as important as communication?

 

How does one communicate and impart a syllabus without having a deep understanding of the relevant material?

 

An excellent communicator with an insufficient grounding in the relevant subject is worse than useless.

 

We end up with Maths teachers convincing students that X^2+1=0 has no roots (it has 2 roots).

 

I have known teachers with excellent degrees but they cannot communicate their knowledge to students. Putting the answer to Maths questions on the board without explaining how they arrived at the answer is pointless, if one cannot communicate how they arrived at the answer. To TEACH means just that, preferably others, that is their job, regardless of whether they have an excellent degree and knowledge of the subject themselves. No wonder the state of Maths amongst students in this country is so bad, it's not the subject but the teachers who fail to communicate their subject across to the students. This is also why people are put off subjects for life.

If you gain your degree from Oxbridge, you can even teach without any teaching qualifications.

[xfox3x]

You appear to be saying: "If you don't have the appropriate qualifications to start a course, go away and get them. When you've got them, come back and do the course. if you are successful, you will qualify and you'll probably be pretty good at your job."

 

I wouldn't argue with that.

 

Then again - as we've all read many times on this forum: 'A degree is a degree.'

 

Each to his own. I'd rather be operated on by somebody who got 'A' levels, went to uni, did a medical degree, did the appropriate post-graduate training and had plenty of experience than be operated on by somebody with a degree in underwater basket weaving.

 

The days of 'only those educated in top schools are eligible to go to university' have long gone. I've no problem with that.

 

Unfortunately, there does appear to be a move towards 'anybody who has been to any sort of university and who has got any sort of degree should get any job (s)he wants'.

 

Well I'm not sure that I totally understand your reply! You seem to be arguing with yourself on this one.

Do you really think that someone without a medical degree would be allowed to practice?

The person concerned did get A levels and went to uni, got a medical degree etc., but in his 20s and not his teens. He also took a lot of experience of patient care and communication into his career as a doctor.

In the 1960s a lot of us didn't get the chance to stay on at school and study...not because we were thick but because (in my case) parents wanted us out earning to help support the family.

[barleycorn]

Why don't we take a look at what was actually said... here it is in the Guardian...

 

the former Labour minister Alan Milburn, has recommended that medical teaching hospitals actively select those with poorer grades who have nevertheless done well for their school in order to ensure doctors from poorer backgrounds can work in the NHS.

 

So, whilst they may have lower grade A-levels they would still have to pass the degree to the same level as anyone else. I fail to what the problem is here.

 

Furthermore:

A report on EMDP students by the British Medical Journal found that those from underperforming schools without AAB grades were just as likely to succeed as other medical students.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/30/teaching-hospitals-students-lower-grades

http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7653/1111.extract

 

jb