Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994 TAG: 9403160004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Melissa DeVaughn
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After retiring in 1992, Walter entered a relatively new program offered at Old Dominion University in Norfolk called the Military Career Transition Program. Designed to certify outgoing military personnel in elementary and secondary teaching, the Military Career Transition Program may help balance the teacher-gender scale.
When the transition program began in 1989, approximately 35 retired military personnel entered. Now, due in part to downsizing of major military bases, there are more than 800 students enrolled in the teacher certification program, 85 percent of whom are men.
Students in the program must take at least 27 credit hours of courses, observe 60 hours of classroom teaching and complete an intensive 6-week student teaching assignment. They are then ready to enter the civilian workforce.
Although no longer in the military, Walter says he still uses some of the strategies he learned in the Coast Guard with his pupils, simply "because it works.''
"I teach them to work together, to be survival-dependent on a group," he said. "If your ship sinks, so does the rest of it, and I have a real interest in your survival."
However, he avoids using drill-sergeant tactics to get things done.
"People think everybody in the military has a crew cut and screams all the time," said Walter, 46. "But the most important thing we learn is to be successful. That is a skill that transcends into everything we do, and you learn to make things work."
For further information on the Military Career Transition Program, call (804) 683-3327.
by CNB