The Importance of Teacher Training

We have training, teacher preparation, and team meetings during the first two weeks before school begins. During one of these training sessions, our teachers were taught about the importance of the skills they teach and how their work also helps fill gaps in students’ writing skills.

At this particular training session, I had just presented a basic outline of our routine for teaching writing. When the presentation was finished, a homeschool parent who was observing the training asked how she would know what skills her daughter had and which ones she did not have.

I explained to her that she could not.

My most experienced teacher, who is beginning her sixth year with us, did not yet have enough experience to know everything that was missing from her students’ overall knowledge of writing.

The parent looked at me quizzically.

I explained that the teacher beginning her sixth year with us is very good at instructing her students to consistently write complete thoughts, punctuate their writing correctly, independently correct their spelling, and identify a main idea. She is very good at teaching those skills.

But her knowledge is still at a basic level. She is not yet able to challenge and improve a typical high school student’s punctuation, writing style, or even writing voice.

Those holes in her own knowledge, after five years of teaching, are why she is not yet able to identify all of the holes or gaps in a high school student’s knowledge of how to write. Neither is a well-intentioned homeschool mother with little experience in writing instruction.

It takes years to gain the experience necessary to consistently and successfully teach students how to write for different situations, even at a basic level. Hopefully, in another three or four years, through additional training and experience, she will be competent and confident in teaching older students how to write at a more advanced level.

My main point is simple: Teaching takes time to learn. Good teaching takes even more time.

There is little to no teacher training in almost all public, charter, and private schools in Arizona. With the proliferation of microschools, I do not see that changing anytime soon.

Homeschooling is a viable and important opportunity for Arizona families. However, when parents do not have the knowledge and training necessary to teach writing, mathematics, and reading successfully, we should expect to see a continuation of undereducated Arizona students.

The Arizona Legislature and governor could make major changes in the quality of education in our state by establishing minimal standards for spring student testing and setting clear criteria for passing.

Doing so would encourage schools, teachers, and homeschoolers alike to take the training and preparation necessary to become better teachers.

Teaching is not simply knowing a subject. Teaching is knowing how to teach the subject. That knowledge takes time, training, and experience to develop.