AboutRem Heck Expertise Major strengths of school: Diversity. MSU (at least when I attended `70-`74) has the largest single campus enrollment in the U.S. and ranked 2nd, as I recall, in the world (after the Sorbonne). But it handles its size very well, particularly by using the "living/learning concept" where in some cases freshmen can attend up to 90% of their classes in the same buildings in which they live. It also had the nations largest concentration of Merit Scholars (recipients of the National Merit Scholarship). It is particularly noted for its college of Veterinary Medicine, and has both colleges of Human Medicine (M.D.), and Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) at a single campus. It is also noted for its school of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional management. A former employer of mine, Texas Instruments, made a point of recruiting bachelor graduates in Packaging Engineering. While not as famous as Berkely, or Argonne, MSU does have a cyclotron and other sophisticated equipment.
Question do you have a teacher program ?
if you do can you please answer these questions
what andvice would you give to a new teacher that?
how long do you have to go to college ?
what is the college life like?
do you think that in another 10 years or more that are amount of teachers will continue to go down ?
do you that in the future that there will be more internet learning then people atually going to school?
Answer Hi, KayLee!
Please understand that I am not an official representative of Michigan State University. I graduated from there in 1974. I try to answer questions from prospective students, and help them to find information about the school. My wife is a professional educator who has just completed her Masters Degree in Special Education (specialty in Cognitive Impairment), so I'm going to ask her to help me with some of your questions.
As far as your questions go, Michigan State University does offer degrees in education from Baccalaureate through Ph.D. In the State of Michigan (and in all States that I'm aware of), a Bachelors degree is the minimum requirement for full teacher certification. The time required to earn the degree is traditionally 4 years, however it may be shorter if a heavier course load is taken. There is at least one required period of supervised teaching (called "student teaching") lasting one full semester. And there may be additional internships depending on the school. Some States also require professional competency testing prior to certification.
College life is what you make of it. It is generally a period of broadening personal horizons. However, it may also be a period of stress and turmoil as you discover yourself. About the only thing that you can say for certain is that it won't last forever.
Are you certain that the number of teachers is decreasing? Or, are you infering that since there are shortages in certain subject areas that there are fewer teachers? It may interest you to hear that even when I went to school in the 1970's, there was a "teacher shortage". The U.S.A. has had zero population growth for some years. So, the per capita number of teachers may be relatively constant. The teacher population is becoming older, however, and as some teachers retire, there may be local demands for various subject areas.
If you get a teaching degree in social studies, you may have difficulty in finding a job. If your degree is in mathematics, science, or special education, you may find that there is a greater demand for your services. There is also a relatively new specialty of "English as a Second Language" requiring a teacher that is fully bi-lingual in English and another language. Currently "popular" are Spanish, Farsee, and several Oriental languages.
As to the internet replacing residential programs -- if it ever does happen, I predict it will be humanity's loss. The internet is too impersonal to impart all the nuance of knowledge that will lead to breakthroughs in the human condition.
