Problems of Teacher Education

I feel moderately nerdy posting a new message already since I posted my first only two hours ago, and know that such a trend will not continue, but recently I was thinking about the state of education in America and why it will never improve.

In order for a great education system to exist, we must have teachers who are among the best of all of society. Current teacher education programs do not seem to encourage such high standards. Yesterday when I was angry about the fact that I had to take thirty hours of classes that I could have achieved the same result if the program were better in only twelve or fifteen I sat down and wrote the thoughts below.

......................................................
There is a current trend in society that believes that more is better. In education this idea produces almost damaging results. The definition of a "highly qualified teacher" is one who has taken several hours of professional education requirements and has passed a test. Based on the trends I have seen, I would not consider many of these people to be "highly qualified." The requirements of an education class are the lowest of any other department outside of fitness. Students who struggle in both basic English and math are still able to maintain a 3.0 GPA in education classes.

Instead of increasing the amount of time spent in low expectation classes, there would be a more rigorous pace with high expectations that not everyone can achieve. I would feel much better about leaving a child at a school where the teachers only had five classes in professional education programs that had high standards, required genuine thought processes, and had a rigorous curriculum than I would about leaving a child at a school where the teachers had twice as many classes that they could pass with little effort.

If we are truly looking for "highly qualified" teachers then we should start by looking for highly qualified people. If the reason somebody is going into education is because that is all they can do, then we aren't truly helping students or schools.

.............................................

I just get frustrated with the efforts being taken to improve our schools, because in actuality, all they do is add more people to the teaching profession that don't understand what high achievement is.

PS-There are in fact many wonderful teachers, and this is not at all an attack on their abilities.