Little is taught or demonstrated about resilience in college courses or by tenured professors, yet little is of greater consequence to the nation's at-risk youth. Alternative Routes to Teaching Escalate in Just the Last Two Years. Traditionally, classes are frequently scheduled for the convenience of the professors, causing mature or mid-career individuals to have to either miss work or choose between entering teaching or feeding their families. Not only do mature candidates need after-work classes, they require continuity of retirement benefits, insurance, and other life necessities to make a switch from their current career to teaching. In the traditional model, early field experiences of increasing lengths of time interfere both with taking courses and work.
Student teaching is another major hurdle to mid-career teacher education candidates.
Further, the university charges at least 12 credit hours in tuition. The experience may further require a second rent payment for housing at the site, and may entail purchasing a new wardrobe. Few mid-lifers, unless independently wealthy, can afford the luxury of becoming a teacher using the traditional route. Finally, the traditional model of teacher certification is perfectly designed to fail because it practically ensures that new teachers will have to learn the basics about relating to students who are culturally, demographically, gender, and ethnically diverse from themselves.