Resurrected
Hmph, the conclusions drawn here are fairly disingenuous to anyone who’s actually been a teacher: good teachers make the most difference to students (actually, it’s disingenuous to anyone who’s watched Dangerous Minds). The connections are key to educational success or failure. Too bad we continue to treat educators as criminals first—random drug testing, state, federal, and FBI background checks, and as soon as a student or parent hints at inappropriate conduct (real or false), that teacher gets dragged through the streets with only the backing of a “terrorist organization”—the NEA.
Still, it begs the question of how we go about making good teachers. Throwing more money at teacher education programs? Maybe, but I have too poor an opinion of teacher ed. programs in general to think it would do more than inflate some faculty salaries. Teacher education programs don’t make teachers, or they at least aren’t solely responsible for it—most teachers would attest to that. Good teachers are made at the front of the classroom, and plenty are broken there as well.
Personally, I advocate returning to an apprentice program for teachers: reduce the time spent working on the degree in a university system to two or three years. Then, send prospective teachers to a mentor for two years, where they learn the real trade of education: managing situations textbooks don’t cover.
