There is an article in The New York Times today
(7/26/99 p A15) which is worth reading. The author
is Leon Botstein and the title is "MAKING THE
TEACHING PROFESSION RESPECTABLE AGAIN".
"... Right now, viewer that 65% of new teachers have either a
major or minor in a subject matter they teach. Nearly a third
of all teachers today teach subjects in which they have no
formal training. More that half of all students studying physics
in high school are taught by teachers who had neither a major
nor a minor in physics.
These grim statistics don't even show the full extent of the
problem. Most teachers who boast master's degree and
undergraduate credits in a subject have received them in
education schools. As a result they learn how to teach a
subject instead of learning the subject itself.
Our universities and colleges have relegated the training
of teachers to second-class enclaves in which the industry
of education has flourished. We should disband the education
schools and integrate teachers education into the core of the
university. This would place teacher training under the
aegis of the graduate schools of arts and sciences. We should
eliminate the bachelor's degree in education and require
teachers to have a degree in a subject other than education,
and preferably in the subject the person intends to teach. ...
And states should abandon the current standards of teacher
certification. They reflect a historic collusion between
schools of education and state legislatures. This alliance has
remained in place because of the eagerness within the
academic (among scientists, historians, ...) to avoid involving
themselves in the preparation of classroom teachers. ....
Paradoxically, there are view professions that that promis
as many rewards, and as much satisfaction as teaching.
If the right steps are taken to ...."