While I went to work with off-the-charts gusto in my abundantly
joyous Pinkston High School gig, and Barbara engaged with her very intriguing
assortment of courses during her senior year at SMU, Dennis Weltman poured
himself into his studies toward a master’s degree in mathematics and work as a
teaching assistant (T.A.) at that very fine academic institution.
Notice I did not record that Dennis was pursuing a degree in
mathematics education.
I do not recall there being such degree at SMU at that time.
I mention this matter now as something enormously important
regarding the profession of teaching and that I have explored on my
newsalemeducation.blogspot.com blog; in
editions of my academic journal, Journal
of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and
Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota;
in my book, Understanding the
Minneapolis Public Schools: Current
Condition, Future Prospect; on my
television show; and in public
appearances.
In this very year of 2020, very few teachers have legitimate
master’s degrees. There was a trend as
so-called “progressive education” took off in the course of the late 1970s for
academic master’s degrees to be supplanted by programs of departments, schools,
and colleges of education. These offered
easily obtained degrees in “mathematics education,” “social studies education,”
“science education,” and the like; such
programs combined a modicum of subject area instruction with an overwhelming
emphasis on pedagogy. Education programs
afforded teachers and administrators an easy careerist way out via bachelor’s,
master’s, and doctoral (Ed. D., rather than Ph. D.) degrees in education rather
than in departments of specialized disciplines (mathematics, history,
economics, English literature, biology, chemistry, physics, and the fine arts). Degrees in education are so lightweight by
comparison to degrees in these academic disciplines as to reside in different
universes of certification.
Dennis
would have never thought of seeking any master’s degree other than that in the
field that he loved and at which he excelled:
mathematics. His master’s degree
would be granted after meeting the requirements of first-rate professors of
mathematics--- not those charlatans
known as professors of “mathematics education.”
This sort
of professional training lay ahead of me, too, as I began to ponder my own focus
for graduate study.
……………………………………………………………………………………
During
my years at SMU, at Pinkston, and to this day, I love all academic fields.
When
I hit the SMU campus, I opted for a schedule that was essentially a
continuation of the advanced track that I had been on at Memorial High
School. I was not eager to focus
exclusively on my major concentrations of political science, history, and
psychology. I took calculus through the
full three semesters; joyfully fulfilled
SMU’s language requirement with a year and a half (having tested out of one
semester) of Spanish; took a course in
physics; and gleefully explored western
civilization via SMU’s splendid Liberal Studies (LS) program. Very soon I developed an interest in African
and African American history and took pertinent courses. I loved everything.
But ultimately
my focus for graduate study loomed very clearly into my consciousness:
I was
a political science major at SMU, with major concentrations also in history and
psychology. My teaching certifications
were in government and history (though in fact one of the most backward
education systems in the nation, there was at least the favorable circumstance
that Texas did not in those days recognize the wishy-washy field of “social
studies,” so that my certifications were in those two genuine academic fields).
At SMU, I was particularly interested in political theory and
politics; but while those interests
remained keen during my years at Pinkston, and there was much in that era of
Watergate to ponder, my keenest interests were tending toward history.
From
the time I was in late high school, I knew that I would eventually study on
through to the Ph. D. in an academic field while designating my prime venue for
teaching as high school in a system of K-12 education, as with that initial
position in the Dallas Independent School District. I never considered this odd; quite the contrary, in my view every teaching
professional should pursue education in her or his field to the highest
level. Only as time went on did I fully
realize how at odds were my goals with developments in education programs and
the image of the teacher projected by the education establishment.
The
early 1970s constituted a time of highly dramatic events on the national and international
scenes: the prolonged finale to the
Vietnam War; the 1972 Nixon versus
McGovern presidential election;
Watergate and the Nixon resignation;
gradual thawing of relations with China under Nixon-Kissinger; and within China itself, the continuation of
the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
The
importance of China drew my attention to that area of the world and my
conspicuous lack of formal training in the history of East Asia. My SMU years were rich in the study of many
parts of the world, particularly Europe and Africa. I still had quite few gaps to fill as to
Latin America and all of Asia. I began
to read and research the histories of those areas of the world so as to present
my world history students at Pinkston with quality information. And because of the emerging power’s outsized
impact on the world at that juncture in history, my thoughts for graduate study
trended heavily toward the nation of
>>>>> China.
I
eventually decided that I would overcompensate for what I considered my relative
weakness in the history of East Asia by becoming a specialist in Chinese
history and, by extension, the associated areas of East Asia (Japan, Korea, and
Vietnam). I gave little thought to the
fact that graduate studies in East Asia would get me into studying the Chinese
written language, the Mandarin and Taiwanese (Minnan) dialects, and the Japanese
written language--- and gaining some degree of facility with spoken Japanese. Inasmuch as my Ph. D. program also had a
European language requirement, I would also in time sharpen my skill at reading
Spanish language material.
…………………………………………………………………………..
Dennis
would earn his master’s degree after two years of arduous study in the
department of mathematics at Southern Methodist University in May 1975.
I was
at the time wrapping up my two formative years teaching at L. G. Pinkston High
School.
I
only could make a bare beginning at the time toward understanding what amazing
experiences in K-12 and many other realms of education lay ahead of me, and how
my studies in East Asia would lead me to specialization in the history of the
most dynamic predominately ethnic Han Chinese nation on earth:
not
mainland People’s Republic of China;
but
rather the locus of the world’s most progressive and energetic society,
that
of
>>>>> Taiwan.
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