LETTER TO THE EDITOR    BY JERRY HULING

Source for Poor Teachers

Viewpoints

Houston Chronicle

October 24, 1997

John O'Sullivan's (Texas Federation of Teachers) Oct. 22 Viewpoints letter, "Spotlighting uncertified teachers," equated quality teaching in public schools with teacher certification and warned of the consequences of uncertified teachers.

It is quite possible that teacher certification may be the actual source of poor teachers.

I challenge O'Sullivan to count the people certified to teach in public schools who belong to the following groups:  Nobel laureates, members of Congress, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the federal judiciary, tenured university professors of science, mathematics, engineering, economics, English, philosophy or any discipline other than education, CEO's of Fortune 500 companies, recipients of a Hugo, Edgar or Booker literary prize, state governors or state attorneys general, physicians, nationally syndicated columnists or any other group whose members are generally considered knowledgeable, expert and intelligent.

He will need only a single sheet of paper.

A wise man once said the single most important thing we could do in this country to improve the quality of our public education would be to close the colleges of education.

Jerry Huling, Houston