Education, at least public education, is under attack in this country.  Some of the criticism is deserved while some of it is unnecessary and pointed in the wrong direction.  Teachers are taking a lot of abuse.  They are being told that they are inadequate, ineffective leaders by the media and the government.  Their professional integrity is under scrutiny.  While some teachers are less than stellar, the profession as a whole does not warrant these kinds of accusations.  If teachers are the root of the problem, then the big question becomes what are we going to do to ensure the next generation of teachers are not the problem?

I'm not sure the education reformers are being as aggressive in the teacher preparation arena as they ought, if indeed teachers are the issue.  Instead the focus seems to be on those teachers who are already in the classrooms and have developed their own methods and practices.  The Washington Post blogger, Jay Mathews, has similar questions about the focus of teacher reform.  Click here to read more. 

My take?  I think a lot of education reform can, in fact, happen on the college level.  I went through a comprehensive, well-known and respected program for education.  While I learned a lot of information during those years, I still entered the classroom on day one feeling very ill-equipped.  Out of all my education professors only one focused on the practical, useful, everyday side of teaching.  Her class prepared me more than any theory or history of education class ever has.  She helped us think through a variety of scenarios, encouraged us to develop a plan to deal with them, and still required that our technical knowledge of the discipline be top notch. 

Teachers aren't all to blame for the state of education.  The teacher preparation programs that are supposed to equip and train us to be successful and long-lasting can certainly share some of the blame.