…a great way to stay on top of the dynamic field of Opticianry and make some friends in the process.
…a great way to stay on top of the dynamic field of Opticianry and make some friends in the process.
Many decry the state of education in America and I think understand why. Are the schools we send children to, churning out competent individuals? If not, why not? The wonderful thing about the field of opticianry is the wide gamut of individuals one can meet. One minute you could be helping an engineer and the next you could be helping out a teacher. Now I’ve met a few teachers already and I am very sad to say that I’m not impressed with any of them save a handful. I remember grade school through high school and most of my teachers except for one English teacher, one Spanish teacher, my HS physics teacher and one history teacher who taught auxillary subjects, like “Man’s Inhumanity to Man,” in which we learned about how some of humanity’s atrocities in different periods of history, were actually worth the time to listen to. Most importantly these were the only teachers who taught critical thinking.
So, why do I bring this up? Well, today I had a teacher who felt compelled to tell me how to do my job. One of her criticisms was that she believed that I held the pupilometer too low. I made it a point to let her know that she is free to go anywhere else if she isn’t comfortable with me working on her glasses. She did not understand that as long as the pupilometer is level and I could see her pupillary reflex, her PD would not be different. This is very basic geometry. If I’m not mistaken, you learn this in your first month of geometry in middle school.
How is this possible? How can someone who calls themself a teacher not have any critical thinking skills. I’m all for teachers getting compensated properly and recieving their due respect, but there has to be something said about the quality of teachers. I find that the quality of teachers are really low and only a few are really worth paying attention too. If you are a teacher, don’t be the teacher everyone forgets because you didn’t have the ability to instill anything into your students.
Optician n. One who is extensively trained in the interpreting of ophthalmic prescriptions and applies that knowledge to obtain the optimum visual and safety performance for the patient in a pair of spectacles or contact lenses.
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Friend n. 1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts. 2. A person whom one knows; an acquaintance. 3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade. 4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement.
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rneiderman@opticiansfriend.com
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August 16th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
As a former teacher myself, I can attest to the widely varying degrees of competence in the field. It’s a lot like opticianry that way. Why is this a problem in fields like education and ophthalmics and yet much less so (or at least less obviously so) in engineering or medicine. Sure, there are bad doctors and good ones, but any doctor as inept as a few of the opticians and teachers with whom I’ve worked would quickly lose his license. So why?
First, I’d say that it’s WAY easier to become a teacher or optician than an engineer or MD. There is less education required for teaching (bachelor’s) and opticianry (associate’s or certificate) than for doctor. Finding a job is also a lot easier due to lower levels of competition.
Why the greater competition in certain fields? The primary reason is money, although the prestige that goes along with higher pay is also attractive. Mark my words, the day teachers make six figures is the day public education will turn itself around. Better minds will be drawn to it, harder work required to get into it, and greater care will be taken to stay in it.
So why do some professions get more money than others? Sometimes, greater liability insurance is needed, as in the case of doctors, whose mistakes can be deadly. Sometimes, the amount of education and training is extensive, and requires some payback once completed. Sometimes, the professional is capable of bringing in large amounts of money to his employer, as with engineering firms (or, sadly, sports teams). Another reason, though, is simply the value placed on the profession by society at large. People just think doctors are more important than teachers, and that means they deserve more. I won’t argue with that, but I think the gap in pay doesn’t match up with the comparatively narrower gap in importance. Is our job of helping people see better less important to society than Barry Bonds’ job? (No, and baseball can burn in Hell for preempting wrestling!)
In short (though it is too late for brevity), if our society made any sense, people would value education, people would dream of being great and famous teachers, education majors would have to work hard and develop teaching skills to graduate and get hired, and classrooms would be temples of knowledge where great minds of every sort are nourished.