Back when my older kids were still in school, I occasionally ran across teachers that I suspected were in or nearly in this category:

A retired teacher admitted to not being able to read, write or spell during his 17-year teaching career at a California high school, according to a report.

John Corcoran managed to graduate high school and college without ever learning basic skills, 10News.com reported on Monday. Teachers passed Corcoran from grade to grade and disciplinary problems helped hide his lack of skills.

He cheated in high school by turning in other students' work, earning his diploma in 1956 from Palo Verde High School in Blythe, Calif.

"I couldn't read words but I could read the system and I could read people," Corcoran said.

Evidently, this is one of the easiest professions for people to fake literacy (and competency) because of the culture of protection and because of union rules that create a bureaucratic nightmare of a maze to get a teacher evaluated and dismissed. Having seen the silly mounds of paperwork that teachers are now forced to submit in documentation of their every activity, I'm surprised that some people are "smart" enough to continue the charade for so long...but it happens.

If your fourth-grader is having trouble reading, see if you can get him in a class with a teacher who actually reads aloud to the class...

Former Teacher Admits to Teaching for 17 Years Without Ability to Read or Write

Labels: Education