There’s a mess over at Mesa Community College, Mesa, Ariz., and it’s all about certification. Fifteen part-time fitness professors were fired because they lacked any sort of fitness certification, according to Mesa administration — though the professors claim it’s their age that’s the problem, not their education.
The article says Ann Stine, chairwoman of the school's exercise science department, said, “the department is improving exercise science instruction by making sure fitness teachers have kept up with medicine’s ever-changing body of knowledge. [We] also want them to be trained to help students with complex diseases, such as diabetes.” Sounds good to me. So, what’s the problem?
To bring about this change, a policy requiring professors to earn a personal training certification from one of three companies accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies was implemented. None of the fired professors earned a certification, and were subsequently fired.
It seems cut-and-dry, but college officials aren’t exactly backing Stine. One of the fired professors, 80-year-old Theo Heap, claimed he didn’t pursue certification because Stine didn’t make clear which certifications they should obtain, and the college agreed with him.
But, in my opinion, a professor of fitness ought to know which certifications are accredited and widely respected — no matter how old he is. Heap shouldn’t need anyone to hold his hand and lead him to the best certifying bodies. He should have been doing that for his students. If he was so uncertain about the lay of the fitness certification land, he has no place teaching budding fitness professionals.
There is undoubtedly more to the story, and I’ll leave it to the Mesa officials (and, likely, more than a few lawyers) to sort out that mess. But, making high-quality education a priority is a step every school should take, and stand behind.
1 comment:
Being a fitness professional who believes in educating/training others to be competent professionals, I would only hope that the educators/trainers at Mesa Community College have accredited degrees themnselves! This is why the fitness profession has had a black-eye in the past. Educators are not accredited and therefore do not follow certain standards which are held in order to promote safe, effective, progressive and especially science-based programs to others. Absolutely ridiculous that Mesa Community College administrators continue to let thier employees work under such circumstances. I would be appalled if my child were enrolled in the exercise program or an athlete there under the guidance of such educators. Kudos to the Exercise department for setepping up and requiring a higher level of education. Stick to your guns!!!
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