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Writer's pictureJoanne Jacobs

Let teachers learn from teachers -- not ed profs -- in the classroom

Education schools are doing a poor job preparing new teachers for K-12 classrooms, writes Beanie Geoghegan of Freedom in Education in The Daily Signal. Professors are too removed from teaching, too fond of "lofty ideas and great-sounding theories" that don't stand up to reality.


Instead, new teachers should learn from veteran teachers how to "handle unruly students, constant interruptions, unhappy parents, broken copy machines, dismissive administrators, and rained-out recess," she writes.


Teachers complain that ed schools don't teach course content and how to teach it. Instead, many classes "focused on courses like child psychology, social foundations of education, and educational philosophy."


An apprenticeship model using experienced, knowledgeable teachers would be far more relevant. Mentor teachers would be paid more, rewarding them for staying in the classroom.


Thirty states are experimenting with the K-12 Teacher Registered Apprentice program, she writes.


When veteran teachers look back at the start of their careers, they talk about"crying every night," writes Olina Banerji in Education Week.


Carol G. had no mentor, no "onboarding" process, she recalls. "Pretty much ‘Here’s a room, here’s the book, good luck!’ I cried every day on the way to work and quit after a year." After raising children, she returned and has taught for 25 years.


“Teaching is probably one of the few jobs (and maybe the only job) in which the employee is 100% alone on the first day — no assistance or supervision," says Scott T. "They are expected to fly solo.”


Lynne L suggests: "Bring back retired teachers as mentors" for first-year teachers.

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Bruce Smith
Bruce Smith
Aug 27

This is a good example of a false choice: good teacher education programmes include internships with all of the practical advice from master teachers you properly extol (I was one such mentor for five years, although I may not have deserved such praise) in addition to the theoretical courses (for example, cognitive science) that also properly belong in such programmes; shortcuts that minimize Americans' already shoddy general education usually rebound upon the youth being subjected to such minimally trained teachers, resulting in the depressing generational reproduction of ignorance in the communities resorting to such desperate measures (for example, Governor Youngkin's new lab schools in Virginia).

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lady_lessa
Aug 27

I've only taught religion as a volunteer and took advantage of as much training as I could, I agree perfectly with this posting. I knew the subject well, but worked best with another person in the class to help with classroom control and relating to the students. (generally elementary school age).


The last time I taught and quit in the middle of the school year, was when I was alone, and expected to have assigned seating, etc. (I also had a boy who could barely read and one who should have been in the next class up, but he had missed too much the year before and was held back.)

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