A reader of my piece yesterday on Arne Duncan’s plan for improving teacher preparation commented as follows:
I can not agree with you more. After having worked as an engineer for over 20 years, I changed careers and am now a math teacher. I can confirm two things based on my experience and the requirement that I take graduate ed courses for licensing purposes (I already have masters degrees in computer science and engineering). First, most teachers are dimwits. I have never encountered a more intellectually lazy group in my professional lives. The lack of curiosity, the lack of knowledge, the illiteracy, and the inability to think are astounding. It scares me that these people are teachers.
Second, the academic rigor in graduate ed courses is comparable to that in preschool. I put more work and effort into one week of an engineering or computer-science class than into a full semester of an ed class. Would you believe that an episode of Frontline was an acceptable source for a master’s-level research paper? That Wikipedia was also an acceptable source?