You've Got Trouble
You've Got Trouble
You've Got Trouble
You've Got Trouble
Norman W Wilson, PhD
Well, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated---Ya got trouble, my friend, right here [in good old US of A]
The song composed by the late Meredith Willson serves as a warning.
I have written several articles about the sorry state of our educational system, the dumbing of America, and the squandering of hard earned tax dollars on elaborate coliseums that even the Ancient Romans would envy.
A recent report by Donna Gordon Blankinship (Associated Press. Dated 12/11/2010) titled Survey: Parents deserve heavy blame for education woes reveals some startling statistics.
An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll has found that a whopping 68% of adults believe parents are at fault for what's wrong with our American educational system. The respondents to the survey blame parents more than they do teachers, school administrators, the government, or teacher unions. I noted they did not place any blame on the students themselves.
As few as 35% of those surveyed indicated teachers deserve a great deal or a lot of the blame. Seventy-two present of the mothers surveyed blame the parents.
The respondents who pointed the finger at parents cited a lack of student discipline and low student expectations as serious problems.
The blame game delights in pointing to teachers, parents, administrators, and government. All of these share, to some degree, the blame for the current depletion of the American brain trust. I believe there are several other significant areas that need serious revamping.
There is an old saying in education circles that goes something like this: "Teachers teach they way they were taught." This brings me to the first area I strongly believe needs serious examination and change... teacher training.
In recent years, teacher training has focused on the accumulation of subject matter expertise. That's the wrong emphasis. One can have a brilliant command of history, economics, English, or mathematics but still not be able to teach.
Therefore, courses required at the college or university level need examination in terms of what the career goal isthe training of good teachers. Courses need evaluation in terms of what they offer to developing teaching skills. Courses in psychology and testing and measurements generally are of little value because they do not concentrate on the psychology of learning and do not provide instruction in how to phrase questions that do not elicit yes or no responses or rote memorization of irrelevant data. Potential teachers need to be taught how to structure their class questions so they foster open discussion, that they are interactive, and stimulate further student inquiry. Future teachers need to learn techniques of behavior modification to meet disciplinary issues that are bound to arise.
Professionals in other fields must serve an internship, or an apprenticeship. Putting a young person in front of a class for a few weeks or a semester doesn't cut it. Instead of insisting teachers get a master's degree in their subject field, the fifth year should be an intensive hands-on-training time in a public school with specific supervision. Getting a student teacher should not be a time to set the regular classroom teacher free for most of the semester. College personnel need to be directly involved in the teaching-learning experience at the school level.
Instead of blaming teachers, administrators, parents, and students examine the system. When a system breaks down, examine it to see why it broke down.
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