How does a person remember? Why is there a struggle to
comprehend? Why is it so difficult?
These questions are all part of my daily trade. I teach and
one could even say that it is good that it is difficult to understand. If
everything was easy to understand - I would be out of a job… (But the world
would be wonderful… or maybe not…)
To understand the following I have to explain two things.
The first is that my becoming a teacher was not a straight forward thing. Quite
the contrary. After an exam in Enigeneering and some off courses in History (I
know, I know…) crisis hit me at twentyfive – what do I actually want to do in
life? Some meandering years later I had a degree in teaching and it’s what I have
been doing ever since.
The other thing to know is that deregulation was all the
rage in the early nineties. The government allowed free schools (brit:
academies; am: charter schools), the curriculum of ’94 was very short (for
instance: in history the main subject was ”main events of Swedish, European and
world history”) and regulatory boards that checked the contents of books were
abolished. Post modern theory explained that since there was no objective way
to know what subject matter that was most important, the actual subject matter
wasn’t important. The pupils was to learn how to learn, not actually learn –
that was the key to a new breed that didn’t stuff unimportant facts ontop of
eachother, but instead understood. Really understood…
So, once a teacher exam in hand, any exam, the principal or
head master could hire you to do any teaching. In fact, you did not even need a
teacher exam, the school could simply evaluate your ”competence” and you could
have a job.
Now, these are interesting questions, because how do you
become a good teacher…?
But if I was to dig into that question, the subject matter
of this particular blog would have been side tracked.
Instead: During the noughties Swedish school results
plummeted. If you are worried about the results of say, the UK, in PISA or
TIMSS, have no fear, because a few rows further down you will find Sweden. On
top of that, in the last PISA, not only was Sweden the country in ”western”
Europe that had the worst results, Sweden was also the country of all in PISA
(just 70 countries, so not ALL the countries in the world) which had results
that had dropped the most from 2003 to 2012 in mathematics. And literacy in
science. And reading.
All of this has had an… eh… invigorating effect on school
debate. In the last parlimentary elections (September of 2014 for those of you
who arn’t atuned to domestic Swedish politics), education was one of the main
areas of debate. The debate was fierce and far from civil.
As a teacher all of this happens on a level quite far above
your head – you have the classes at hand and your event horizon is sometimes
down to the next few seconds.
But one of the cures to elevate both the knowledge of the
subject at hand of the individual teacher (one of the consequences of
deregulation had been that some teachers had not learned that subject at
University – surprise) and to raise the status of teaching, was to certify
them. In August of 2011 the governement required all teachers to send their
examination papers and all other relevant exams for review. Everybody was to be
certified according to subject and class. All was to be done by Christmas the
same year.
So I sent quite a lot of copies in August of 2011. During
the years there have been an extra course or two…
And then I waited…
Well, the certification process was not done by Christmas of
2011.
Turns out, some wheels and some cogs move slower than
others. Not trying to dig too deep into self pity, but it turns out that my
years at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology had not tought me any physics.
Not really. Not the type of physics you need to be certified. Because in Sweden
you need quantum mechanics. The type of physics I knew from KTH, the building
engineering type of physics, well, you have to understand that this doesn’t
qualify you for more than 3rd grade (=9 year olds).
Hmm… What to do? At the time I was teaching 6th form physics
and mathematics at the Swedish Shool in London. And there was word from the
school authorities that from June of 2015, you had to be certified to be able
to teach and grade.
So I decided to move back home to Stockholm. There were many
reasons for this, but one was the ability to do some courses so my certificate
would cover 6th form physics and mathematics. I went back to my old job
teaching lower secondary school, I did a course in Astronomy, I did a
course in the theory of relativity, I did a course in quantum physics, I looked
at my old exam and thought – this should be it…
An ordinary exam for teaching physics in Sweden consists of
three terms full time studies (on top of that you need pedagogics and teacher
training, but that, I had covered) Each
term is made up of four courses, so to become a teacher you need a total of 12
courses, typically one or two in each of the subcategories of physics, a course
in electromagnetics, one in thermodynamics, two in mechanics etc.
Emphasis is however on one dominant part. There is one part
of physics that is critical to the becoming teacher. One part that consists of
not one or two, but three courses of the curriculae. One part that is so
important that one fourth of the entire training is devoted to it.
And that is quantum mechanics.
No, my ”extra” knowledge in other parts of the spectre that
is physics did not matter. The ability to actually use physics the way that it
is tought at engineering institutes was not something to be encouraged or
valued. Yes, you have some experience in teaching but not long enough at the
right level. Since quantum mechanics is where most of the research is today, a
future teacher has to be up to par. Yes, you have done one course in quantum
physics, but you need two more, in quantum mechanics.
But I am of course not the only one. There are other
teachers in the same situation. And for all of us there is a programme,
”Lärarlyftet”, approx. ”elevating teachers” (it had been more fun calling it
”levitating…”, had it not)
So I applied.
But these courses are only for those who actually teach at
that level today. They are not open for teacher at another level, say secondary
school. And so, my personal catch-22 moment dawned upon me. If I had stayed in
London, these courses had been open to me, but since I moved back… And since
I’m not certified for that level, my possibilities to get a job at that level
now…
What avenues were open?
Well, to take the courses, day-time, together with all the
regular students, at the same time trying to work.
And thus, finally, after a meandering blog, I’m back at the
introduction. I see it everyday in my pupils. The difficulty in understanding.
The difficulty of making a whole of parts that are also quite difficult.
To me, quantum mechanics is the most difficult subject I
have ever encountered. It is difficult conceptually (I won’t start on all the
Heisenberg and Schrödinger quotes). It is difficult mathematically (it is good
if you really love your Fourier, it would have been good if my mathematical
knowledge wasn’t 30 years old).
But on top of that, it is a really inelegant theory.
Let me explain. To understand the specific theory of
relativity by Einstein, all you need is two postulates (everything is relative,
the speed of light is absolute) and, if you have a good teacher, the entire
theory unfolds through elegant logics. It is beautiful (if a bit strange)
Quantum mechanics is all but logical and beautiful. Special cases and logical leaps abound. Concepts like ”tunneling” and
”spin” are nonsensical and difficult to calculate. Evertything is wrong with
quantum mechanics - except that the darn thing works…
So there I was last autumn. I went to a couple of classes,
those that I could. I ordered the book
and I tried…
But on top of that, I knew that I would never use it as a
teacher. Since it is so difficult, you can’t really teach all that much of it
in 6th form physics. Some bascis are in the curriculum, but…
I did my last try during christmas vacation, but my
resistance to opening the book had become almost physical and I realized: If I
want to become a certified teacher in mathematics and physics in 6th form, I
have to take a leave from work for approximately one year and only do that – I
am not capable of doing this on the side.
So, after agonizing over this for more than three years, it
all ended up in a sort of failure. But at the same I felt releaved – my own
personal Schrödinger equation had not been a happy one and now I was free.
---
Three weeks later I talked with my principal. The question
of certification has been a major problem for all schools. What will happen
next semester? So she had had a long talk with the authorities. And the answer
was: Yes you need to have a teacher certificate to teach and grade. But it may
be a certificate on any level… and any subject
Ah, well…
