University of Tulsa - Kendallabrum (Tulsa, OK)

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RIGHT AND CLOCKWISE: Students compare schedules in the Business college office. Mrs. Kulsrud laughs during a discussion with one of her students. Two business students wait in the hall for their next class,

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EDUCATIO Education: just Teaching Teachers to Teach? How does the College of Education fight the problems of the so-called diminishing job market for its graduates? How teaching concerns have changed is just as important a question as why they have. The teaching position out- look, and the methods the College of Education is em- ploying to solve them are important to the education major who feels his chances for a job in the big city are slim. lf you are willing to relocate, i.e., if you don't mind teach- ing in a small town, jobs are available. If you're not, the teaching position after only four years of college is hard to come by. Dr. Bruce Howell, Dean of the College of Educa- tion, and superintendent of the Tulsa Public Schools until August 1976, is ready with firsthand figures on hiring in the Tulsa community. ln 1969, there were 80,000 Tulsa school children. In 1976, there are 60,000, Howell said. Tulsa schools, hired 635 teachers in 1969, and in 1976 hired less than 100, and that includes people with advanced degrees, he said. Howell also stated that one eighth of all Oklahoma stu- dents are Tulsa residents. Thirty-five hundred new teach- ers with B.S. degrees compete for the limited openings in the state. As an educator I like that. The best means of quality control is supply and demand. Education is best through that process, he said. It is evident that the trend in American society toward small families has caused the reduction in numbers of school age children, and teaching jobs. But the education field has expanded within itself. There's a whole world of non-school teaching - recreation, night community schools, other than just teaching little kids, Howell said. There is a demand for business education, a person to utilize business techniques, service education, varying teaching strategies and techniques. You can plug anything into the process, he said. Continuing education is a plus then, for the adult return- ing to school and providing jobs for people who enjoy teaching professionally. Howell feels the changes in soci- ety have created educational conflicts in the urban setting that did not exist twenty years ago. Teacher candidates today can look for more parental involvement, more government involvement, and more teacher organization involvement in the classroom. Howell explained that unions and similar groups negoti- ate matters such as class size, class atmosphere, what time to discipline, and supplies and materials minimum in the classroom. Those were at one time considered administra- tive decisions. Howell also stated that the field is changing - Some of the impacts, for example are deseg- regation, the restraints of individualized education, pres- sure groups for basic education, those who want to ex- clude sex education, conflicting with liberal educators who want the classroom as a forum for real life. lt is the function of the College of Education to provide a student with course choice and field work that serve as an