otoh

I’ve been working on National Board Certification for the last two years. We got our most recent scores on Friday the 19th and I was disappointed to find that I still don’t have enough points. I have one more year to rewrite and resubmit (and repay for) some of the sections. My first reaction is that I know I can do this, but part of me wants to just drop it and move on to other pursuits.

I do have encouragement from a couple coworkers to keep going and if I get certified it should mean more that it did not come easily to me. Some of the procedures are rather tedious though, and I don’t handle tedium well.

Tangential rant: A couple guys that I play racquetball with are eye doctors. To maintain their license they have to earn credits through classes and seminars. We teachers have to do that too. But here is a description of one of the ways they can earn some of those points: They go to a ski resort in Colorado. They attend lectures 7-9AM and 4-6PM. The lectures are often given by college professors. The rest of the time they are on their own to ski or whatever. A couple weeks later they get the exam in the mail. They go over any notes they took and call each other on the phone and help each other answer all the test questions. Then they mail it in.

I know that it isn’t easy to become a doctor of any sort and it’s not easy to maintain a practice. I can tell you that being a teacher is no picnic either and we don’t get any ski-weekend seminars to maintain our certificates….