President of NEA: No more closing the classroom door | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:
Get Schooled: President of NEA: No more closing the classroom door
Dennis Van Roekel often sounds more like a math teacher – which he was for 25 years in Arizona after growing up in Iowa – than president of a 3.2 million-member union, the National Education Association.
In Atlanta for the NEA’s Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly being held at the Georgia World Congress Center, Van Roekel met Friday with AJC reporters and editors. Today, he will lead 1,000 educators in kicking off the NEA’s new “Raise Your Hand for Public Education” campaign.
At the AJC, he discussed the national push for more alternative and expedited routes to teaching that bypass traditional classes on classroom management and teaching methods. “I don’t believe everyone who has a degree in math can do what I do in the classroom. And I can’t do every job in math,” he said.
He believes education needs to build a better recruitment
