IMPACT OF HIGH SCHOOL PREPARATION
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of five of those who "teach" history or geography are equally bereft of
academic experience in the field they are now assigned to teach.
As education historian Diane Ravitch tells us, most teachers of history,
which is taught today in social studies programs, have degrees in education
that are unrelated to any academic field and derive solely from mind–
numbing courses in mainstrearning special education students, bilingual
education, health education, curriculum and instruction, educational admin–
istration, audiovisual aids, counseling and guidance, and similar pedagogical
busywork. If they have learned anything about the influential individuals and
critical events in the history of their country or that of the larger world, it is
by sheerest accident. The years in which they might have done so were spent
instead in getting acquainted with the latest instructional fads-the "whole
language" method of not learning to read; the "new math" constructivist
approach in which children arrive at their own solutions to the problems of
their own choosing; and discredited memorization or "rote learning" are
replaced with abstract concepts-and with the principles of multicultural–
ism and the many ways of inculcating self-esteem, always excepting the way
that results from actual accomplishment-finishing hard work, getting the
answer right, mastering the problem at hand.
What's to be done? Can teacher education be turned around? Well, yes
and no. It could be, but I fear it is not likely to be, except by small incre–
ments, over a long period of time. As you may have guessed, I'm not
optimistic, given the weight of the forces arrayed against real reform-the
vested interests of the credentialing institutions, the power of the unions
enforcing seniority and tenure regulations that put the economic interests
of their members ahead of the welfare of students, and the ideological slant
of the government bureaucrats more concerned with attitudes on race and
gender than with literacy. Here, nevertheless, is what I think could be done
to change the way we prepare our teachers. I offer these suggestions ten–
tatively, always mindful of the fate of Jeremiah.
First, and most essential, is the necessity of upgrading the quality of mind
of those who are to become teachers. They should be educated men and
women, who know something besides techniques for how to teach. They
should be the possessors of something worth teaching. And let's face it-a
college degree today is hardly the guarantee of a liberal education, or even of
mastery of a "major" subject. But it should be the bare minimum for teach–
ing that subject. The prospective teacher should have specialized in the study
of some discipline-be it English literature, modern European history, math–
ematics, biology, or physics-and be able to demonstrate a wide-ranging
understanding of the field in an examination.
It
should no longer
be
possible
to take charge of a classroom with a background of Mickey Mouse educa–
tion courses and a barely passing grade on a minimum skills test.
