Bridgewater, VA – A significant number of Music, Art, and Health and Physical Education majors are dropping the Education Major. But why?
When asked about the program, students said that they felt it needed to be improved, with Music, Art and P.E. teachers having a worse time in the program than secondary and elementary education majors.
There are several reasons for having problems with being a specialty education teacher in the education program. One student said that they felt specialty education majors struggled in the program due to “the resources and the information that [they] get compared to other students being very obvious, and they do not try to hide that whatsoever about how little [they] get compared to everybody else,” said Student 1.
This sentiment is echoed by many students who say they do not feel prepared to enter their future classrooms or placements.
When speaking to students about their placements, many ended up in classrooms that had nothing to do with their area of interest, both in grade level and in content area. For example, one student was put in something called a success block. The student described their experience in this block as she “walked around and asked kids if they needed help with their math, history or English work,” said Student 2. Another student also stated that they were placed in an AVID program for advanced students. “It was students who needed additional help with subjects like advanced physics, math and science,” said Student 1.
Every future specialty teacher that was interviewed for this story was placed in a classroom or subject they had little to no experience in or knowledge teaching, with some students even saying they were put in a study hall. “I got put into what was basically a study hall,” said Student 3. “I tried to be helpful in that study block, but it was a mess.” Student 3 went on to say that they had to “request to be in a music classroom that was occurring at that same time because [they] didn’t get put in it initially.”
It is important to note that there were some successes with student placements. For example, one student was offered a job outside of their placement where they were able to gain additional experience for their future job.
I reached out to the education department for comment and one faculty member stated: “We must be sure that all Virginia licensure standards are met for them [Specialty Teachers]. [We] try to have faculty available to address student concerns and have a point of contact.”
This story is part of a serial that will be run over the next three weeks. The next story will focus on what the elementary and secondary education teachers think about the program, and the third will be a chance for the department to respond to these comments.
