Se Hace Camino Al Andar

“Today, the teacher-education curriculum is a confusing patchwork. Academic instruction and clinical instruction are disconnected. Graduates are insufficiently prepared for the classroom.” Arthur Levine,  Former President, Columbia Teachers’ College

I finally got around to reading Elizabeth Green’s article in the Sunday Times Magazine, “Building a Better Teacher.” Truthfully, I was wary.  I’m getting a little tired of all the teacher-bashing that seems to be in vogue these days, in the media or elsewhere. But this article is an accurate assessment of the state of teacher training in the United States, based on my own personal experience. I have a degree in English Education from the NYU School of Education (now called Steinhardt). I earned that degree, I had a great education, I had great professors but did I learn what I needed to know to teach? Not really and it didn’t take long for me to realize this. I knew a lot about methods, about ideology but content? Not so much. Classroom management? Not so much. In retrospect, I know now that I would’ve been better off majoring in English, to acquire content and spending more time observing teachers in the classroom, as well as teaching under an experienced teacher. Instead of taking all these methods classes, my time and money would’ve been better spent if I’d had the opportunity to observe and co-teach for three or four years. Imagine a teacher education program in which students major in their content area, get paired up with a mentor teacher, spend x number of hours in that teacher’s classroom per week and attend follow-up seminars to debrief.  Instead, I learned on my feet, in the moment,  and through cobbled-together professional development opportunities, provided either by my school, the Union or by outside organizations that I sought out on my own. In the meantime, what happened to the students that had to suffer through my inexperience, my ineptitude, my positive intentions?

Barring all other factors, the teacher is the single greatest influence on the outcome of a student’s performance. There is no way around it. It’s a big responsibility to shoulder but why did we become teachers, if not to take on this burden? We owe it to ourselves and our students to demand better teacher education. We’re a big part of the puzzle, and the solution.