November 7, 2010
Angelique N. Lopez
7109 Canary
El Paso, TX 79915
Texas Education Agency
William B. Travis Building
1701 N. Congress Avenue
Austin, TX, 78701
To Whom It May Concern:
Education and its lack of mathematics and science educators is the problem known to be throughout the nation, especially within Texas. What will you do to fix the problem? Yes, time and time you are asked to fix many problems that are known to be dealing with higher education, but the lack of science and math educators is at the same rank of a problem in similarity to basically not having any teachers throughout the nation. Think about where the United States would be now if there were no educators in the math and science fields. Where would the United States be without doctors, nurses, engineers, accountants, and especially teachers that taught those students that wanted to go into those fields?
There is no other way of saying that there is a lack of math and science educators. I guess who can compare what came first the student or the educator, to what came first the chicken or the egg? In order for a student to be involved in the science and mathematics fields, the student needs to have an educator that is ready to inspire and have the quality of assurance in teaching according to Management Science of Engineering. Something to take into consideration are the ways to improve teaching and learning and their outcomes.
Education and the result of the number of science and mathematics interests begin in early childhood education. It is shown to be that if a student is not introduced to math or science in a way that they would be able to find interest in it, then they are most likely to not like math and or science in the higher levels of education. In studies that I have made in my University class, there is a lack of math and science educators to the extent of if an individual were a science related teacher, they would receive a $6,000 bonus and if a math related teacher they would receive a $4,000 bonus, just for teaching those subjects. Plus at the end of the year the teacher will receive up to another $2,000 bonus in the state of Texas. Is that the solution to the lack in those fields? Just pay them more or add a bonus and magically math and science teachers will appear. In another study done by the Labour government under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, showed that the larger part of the problem was convincing students that math and science had attractive career opportunities and had “financial premium”.
A solution needs to be made to persuade students that math and science are two subjects, which if are potential majors in the higher education can take you very far in life. Yes, showing students in early childhood education might be hard, due to students might just wanting to be interested in sports or other activities but as a teacher you can always relate the sport or activity to math and science, that way students do build that bond with both subjects. Just the way young children make connections with the way of life, they also need to make a connection with both subjects as young children.
Teachers have the up most responsibility on the effect of the students. If the teacher does not have that effect on the student in no way, then the student will not come to realize how important math and science are. I for example, did not have that bond with math or science in my early childhood education. The teachers that I had, had no effect on me doing well and enjoying math and or science. Most of the time they made it feel like a chore to do, not something that I could possibly make a career out of. Due to the teachers not relating math and science to anything I might of liked, resulted in myself not doing well the rest of my early childhood education and throughout middle school onto my freshman year of high school. Though I had trouble doing math and science my freshman year, as I moved on to my sophomore year I was able to be in two of the best math and science teachers that were at the school. Thanks to those two wonderful math and science teachers they are now my two best subjects, and to the further extend I am not enrolled at the University of Texas at El Paso as a mathematics major and aspire to one day become a mathematics teacher that will inspire students just the way I was inspired.
Where are those teachers in the state of Texas? Where are those future teachers in the state of Texas? The solution to the problem is not where we can find them, but where we can start the education process to show students how important it is to know those subjects. Young children aspire to become doctors, veterinarians, astronauts, teachers, and even bankers, but they do not know what they will need to know in order to follow in those footsteps. How do you think a child will feel once they get to the sixth grade and know that they will need to know those subjects in order to participate in those fields, but yet in the back of their head they know they do not understand those subjects. If we start fixing the problem now we’re already far behind, but in order to fix the problem we have to start somewhere and sometime, and that time is now.
Best regards.
Angelique N. Lopez
