For the first quarter of a millennium after the establishment of Harvard College, teachers with college educations studied the liberal arts or for the ministry. As we approached 1900, that began to change, and state supported normal schools grew up all over the country, from which even today a large proportion of our elementary and secondary teachers come. Was the move to turn the teaching of teachers into a separate “profession” with its own school or college within universities a smart one?
Critics of the education schools, of which I have been one, usually make several arguments. First, the outcomes of students taught by our K-12 teachers is abysmal on average, and while not all of that, or maybe even most of it, can be blamed on the training of the teachers, clearly that training has not worked to promote academic excellence among our children.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Innovations - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author:Richard Vedder
