Friday, September 09, 2005

Sad, very sad

Re: this, this columnist argues, among other things, that education schools (including, presumably, the school at which he teaches and I learn) don't do enough to give teachers a strong background in their content. He says:
Our schools of education are also at fault, saddling future teachers with
"methods" courses at the expense of disciplinary content.

I am definitely feeling that after my 2 classes last night. Actually, the "methods" class seemed like the more useful one. It's "Inquiries into Teaching and Learning" that is making me want to poke my eyeballs out.

1 comment:

NYC Educator said...

I agree completely. I don't think this phenomenon is unique to education, though. I have two friends, a nurse and a lawyer, both of whom tell me what they learned in school has little application to what they do day in and day out.

I'd also say the conclusion that ed. schools need to be eliminated is a poor one. What I needed as an ed. student was advice on how to control a class of 34 public school kids. While many education professors haven't got the remotest notion how to do that, plenty of real teachers could help with things like that.

Being a real teacher, though, is largely perceived as something of no value whatsoever. As a real parent, I greatly value good teachers,