In 1955 , the Department of Education of the Social Credit Government of Alberta ( Minister of Education Anders Aalborg , himself a teacher ) implemented the Emergency Teacher Training Program ( ETTP ). The Faculty of Education , under the direction of Dean Herbert T . Coutts , established a three-year program of six weeks duration per year ( hence the name ‘ six-week wonders ’). The program , which consisted of four full courses per year , was offered during the six-week time-period of the regular summer school programs . A person successfully completing the first phase of the program would then receive a teaching permit called a ‘ Letter of Authority .’ After serving in a classroom for a full school year , participants in the program returned to Summer School for the second six weeks of the program ; and , if one passed the four courses as required , the Letter of Authority was extended for another year . After successfully completing the third year of the six-week program , participants were granted an interim Junior Elementary Teaching Certificate , the same credential as was given to persons who completed one year of studies ( twelve courses ) at the Faculty of Education and then went off to teach .
The Department of Education was so desperate to meet the teacher crisis that the government covered tuition fees for the ETTP participants . In some instances , school boards that faced major challenges in properly staffing their schools provided bursaries on condition that the recipients enter into a contract to teach in their schools . About two-thirds of those who entered year one of the ETTP went on to complete the entire program . No records exist of how many who began their
teaching careers through this program went on to acquire other credentials either as teachers or in other closely related fields of work . The ETTP had beginning classes in 1955 , 1956 and 1957 . The vast majority of the participants went to teach in the small towns or rural schools of Alberta .
Given the strong union inclinations of the ATA at that time , salaries of teachers with Letters of Authority were frozen at level one of the salary grid . Also , while membership fees were collected thereby allowing these ‘ teachers ’ to attend the teachers ’ convention , the ATA insisted that the first three years of teaching experience of the ETTP participants would not be counted as years of pensionable service . Many years later , as a concession to the ETTP teachers , these teachers could , at a premium , ‘ buy ’ these three years . It is sad to say that in some school settings , the union mentality was so predominant in the minds of some administrators that the working experience was less than satisfactory for participants of the ETTP . Some principals were very content to assign the ETTP teacher a larger than normal dose of the menial tasks that are found in school settings .
And that dear colleagues , is how my own thirty-eight year career as an educator in the schools of Alberta was launched . Proudly I stand as a ‘ six-week wonder .’
News & Views Spring 2013 11