Education Courses Should Be Teaching Content

Star Newspapers (south suburban Chicago)
November 9, 2000


Education Courses Should Be Teaching Content, Not 'Recipes'


by Charles J. Shields

Education courses are a breeze. Ask any undergraduate, or veteran teacher returning to pick up some credit. Most of the knowledge you're supposed to absorb is already common sense: think well of kids, manage your time, respect differences, etc. Most of the teaching strategies are recipes -- how to arrange the desks, how to deal with misbehavior, how to write a test, how to write a lesson plan. Most of the work you're expected to produce, papers and tests, summarizes the topics mentioned above.

It's the emphasis on how to teach -- instead of what to teach -- that form the cornerstone of teacher training programs at the 1,300 colleges and universities responsible for turning out teachers. As a result, most education courses are a piece of cake.

Educators and school reformers have complained for two decades about the failure of teacher training programs to offer teachers any substantial training in subject matter. But little has changed in the way most teacher training institutions go about their business. Instead of stressing academic achievement, most teacher training programs still view their role -- and the primary role of the teachers they train -- as change agents whose mission is to work toward social justice and equity in the classroom.

Backing them up is the 1993 mission statement of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, which says, "First and foremost, quality teacher education [programs] must be places of active conscience. The professional commitment to social justice, and the ethics of equity and diversity in the American culture must be palpable."

"Social justice"? How about five different ways to write a paragraph?

"Ethics of equity"? What does that mean, exactly?

Social justice and equity are first-rate goals for society. And no one could quarrel with the need for conscientious teachers who know how to create a harmonious classroom atmosphere.

But first-graders, for instance, have immediate needs a little less lofty than being the recipients of social justice. Like learning how to read!

Do you realize there are 290 state- and federally-funded pilot programs about teaching children how to read? Makes you wonder about the genuineness of that high-minded commitment to the "ethics of equity" if there can be widespread experimenting with kids, and the right way to teach them such a fundamental skill.

So pervasive is the fascination with how to teach -- instead of getting results -- that some teacher training programs in primary education argue kids shouldn't learn anything until. . . . well, those programs aren't sure when kids should learn anything.

This is called the "developmentally appropriate" approach to learning. The "developmentally appropriate" experts say learning is a natural unfolding that occurs at different times for different children. Children should be discouraged to read and write before they are "ready."

Fortunately, such egregious baloney doesn't sit well with everyone.

E.D. Hirsch, the education reformer and author of "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Get Them," testified before Congress that "this doctrine is drummed into almost all teachers who take early-education courses. The intention is to ensure caring treatment of young children, yet the ultimate effect of the doctrine is to cause social harm."

Hirsch said, "To withhold demanding content from young children between preschool and third grade has an effect which is quite different from the one intended. It leaves advantaged children with boring pabulum, and it condemns disadvantaged children to a permanent educational handicap that grows worse over time."

So much for social justice.

Well, there's good news, too. It's not all gloom and doom. Many states, including Illinois, are raising the bar, not just for kids, but for teachers, too. A boatload of requirements is under consideration by various state agencies that will change the way teachers are certified. A heavy hit will be given to knowing subject matter over knowing how to arrange reading groups, for instance.

One phrase of a child's education that has come under special scrutiny recently is middle school.

According to a national report published last fall, "The Preparation of Middle Grades Teachers in an Era of High Stakes and High Standards," middle school students need teachers who can help them learn the material required by district, state, and national standards. In order for that to happen, middle school teachers need specialized training that focus on middle school content.

The report recommends that states require middle school teachers to have middle school certification or endorsements on elementary or secondary certifications demonstrating that they have both the content knowledge and the background in early adolescent development that is needed to help the students master the material.

The report also identifies the characteristics of exemplary middle grade teacher-preparation programs. "Children have a right to receive classroom instruction from qualified teachers in an era where they face harsh penalties in school and later in the labor market for faltering academic performance," the report says.

The middle grades are critical, the report says, because they lay the foundation for the students' success in high school and beyond. If their academic preparation in middle school is weak, students are unlikely to succeed in high school.

There's just no way around it. Being a fair teacher, a creative teacher, and a hard-working teacher are important characteristics in the profession.

But what counts in the end is that kids get the content knowledge they need to have in order to succeed at the next grade level, or outside school when they become citizens and workers. Education courses need to put less emphasis on squishy things like classroom management and creating an atmosphere that encourages social justice, and more on making sure that teachers know the content, and that they can make kids learn it.