Word: conants
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...notion emerges clearly from the book, it is that the present system has reached a dead end. In a technological age which demands that public education be run wisely and efficiently, Conant finds that our schools are staffed with too many poorly trained teachers; that local school boards regularly flaunt minimum state standards in hiring teachers; that teachers are assigned to subjects which they have studied insufficiently or not at all; and that teachers are required to take courses in "methods" or "foundations of education" which are often worthless...
...indictment falls most heavily on the "educational establishment," a loose alliance of education professors, state officials, and teachers' and administrators' associations. To break the hold this establishment has over teacher has over teacher training Conant advocates 1) giving a greater voice to academic and lay people in councils which advise on the training and certifying of teachers, and 2) making the education of teachers the responsibility of an entire institution, including both a faculty of education and a faculty of arts and sciences...
Most radically, Conant proposes that states sweep away the maze of requirements for teachers certification and grant admission to the classroom to graduates of any institution willing to take on the responsibility of training teachers. All the state would require for certification is a B.A., endorsement by the particular college or university, and evidence of supervised practice teaching--one requirement on which all educators agree...
...What I have been arguing for in essence is a competition to see which institution will quickly earn a high reputation for preparing well-trained teachers," Conant concludes. But lost the professional educators claim he is really arguing for chaos, Conant, while upholding the freedom of colleges to experiment, outlines a draft program of academic and professional preparation for teachers. Academic professors who thought Conant was taking their side will find his criticism of academic programs every bit as strong as his criticism of education courses...
...criticism of academic programs that causes the confusion in The Education of American Teachers. Is Conant speaking here as an educator with strong individual prejudices about what programs colleges should offer? Or is he really claiming that present curricula do not serve the academic needs of teachers, and by implication, of any other professional people...