English Taught Here

Anybody with enough education credits can teach anything, in the view of some school administrators. All too often, charges Donald R. Tuttle. professor of English at Cleveland's Fenn College, the rule for teachers of English becomes simply, "Anybody who speaks English can teach it." Result, according to Tuttle: only a third of the English teachers in U.S. secondary schools have studied their subject extensively, and another third is "seriously underprepared."

To back up his point, Tuttle, who is consultant to the teacher preparation and certification committee of the National Council of Teachers of English, has put together an album of educational horrors. Examples: a woman who for years has taught high school English in Pennsylvania had only 18 semester hours of English in college, got mournful Ds in all the courses; a teacher, major in physical education and science, took over an eighth-grade English class in an Ohio school, although she could not spell such a word as acknowledgment. "It is a frightening fact,"' Tuttle says, "that many English teachers do not write or speak as well as their more able students."

Part of the trouble, he says, is that only five states--Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and New York--require 30 semester hours of training in their subject for English teachers, the standard thought necessary by the council. In Massachusetts (nine semester hours) and in New Hampshire and Wyoming (the least choosy, with six), it is perfectly possible for a teacher to confront English classes without having studied a line of Shakespeare in college. A year of freshman composition and a one-semester look at the Lake poets would satisfy Massachusetts.

Colleges must bear some blame, says Tuttle. Most states require recommendations from the colleges of would-be teachers, but in Ohio, 23 of 39 teacher training schools reported that English department heads are not consulted in making recommendations for English certification.

Even if an English teacher has a gift for his profession and a proper grounding in it, there is no certainty that his classes will get the training they should have. Instructors who must teach writing report daily pupil loads of up to 225; at one theme a week and a skimpy five minutes' grading time for each theme, this situation adds a killing 18 hours to their work week. Tuttle's and the council's recommendation: daily loads of not more than 100 students. Without charge, English Teacher Tuttle throws in some advice to school boards on how to improve teaching in all academic subjects. Its wisdom is obvious, but bears repeating: ''Employ principals and superintendents who really believe in academic excellence.''

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