There are Many Great Teachers, but Teacher Education does not fully qualify as a Profession
Professional Education is missing elements found in all other professions. There is no standard curriculum, no sincere effort to identify Best Instructional Practices, and truckloads of weak consultants and players with diluted degrees. To be called a profession it is imperative that there would be some things that every member ought to know, objections and reservations notwithstanding.
Ironically, Teachers worldwide are being held accountable for annual yearly progress of their students while Professors, Learned Societies & commercial schools, and painfully self-serving foundations and Universities perpetuate the absence of solid pedagogic content while simultaneously shielding ourselves and diminishing our strident calls for social reform. A class action by teachers against all of us who are complicit might be the only way to expose the myriad malpractices in Professional Education. Since the likelihood of this is a remote perhaps we could join in an effort to have the US Department of Education hold a convention of the nation’s leading educators to consider and ideally endorse several “fixes.” Such a movement deserves a name. Please suggest one. (I kind of like: Reservations Notwithstanding.)
Meanwhile, please consider joining the websites below offering a potentially catalytic means of getting the current convoluted system moving in the right direction. As an aside, increasing classroom effectiveness could bring about efficiencies that could save billions of dollars with even the smallest degree of success.
http://teacherprofessoraccountability.ning.com/main/invitation/new?xg_source=msg_wel_network And…http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/
Grazie Mille
Anthony V. Manzo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
avmanzo@aol.com
