Teaching License

Teaching Degrees and Teaching License

Most states today require a teacher to obtain a bachelor's degree in teaching, and then to go through an approved teacher development program, which is principally a year spent as a student teacher.  Some states require their teachers to hold master's degrees, and all states require some degree of preparation after graduating with a bachelor's degree.  At the secondary school level and in middle school teachers stick to one subject - math, chemistry, history, and their undergraduate work varies accordingly.  In general teaching requirements are no longer so clear cut and they vary from state to state.  If you want to teach somewhere in the Kindergarten through high school range (K-12) you should consult the certification requirements for the state where you wish to teach.  Math and science teachers seem particularly scarce in many districts, as do special education teachers.  You can obtain a bachelor's degree in education for K-12 teaching from most colleges and universities. 

Many online schools offer teaching degrees as well, but in most cases they cannot provide complete preparation for the credentialing process because in all states there is a requirement for student teaching hours in an elementary, middle or high school.  Some schools known for their distance learning degrees also operate campuses in many states, and some of those have arrangements for student teaching hours with nearby schools.

If you want to teach, begin by determining what the requirements are for your state.  Contrary to popular notions, teacher licensing in public schools does not insure teacher quality. A license also does not even insure that a public-school teacher is an expert in the subject she teaches. In fact, in our upside-down public-school system, licensing often leads to ill-trained and mediocre teachers instructing our children.

The notion that only state-approved, licensed teachers can guarantee children a good education is proven wrong by history. Competition and an education free market created great teachers in ancient Greece.

School authorities' claim that teachers have to be licensed for our children to get a quality education, is therefore false.

Private schools and trade schools teach millions of students valuable, practical skills. Over a million home-schooling parents teach their children reading, writing, and math with learn-to-read or learn-math books, computer-learning software and other teaching materials. All these teachers are not licensed yet they often give children a far better education than licensed public-school teachers.