Focusing LIke a Laser on Training Excellent Teachers

The reform of K-12 education in the United States remains a topic of considerable discusssion in the political ether of the nation of note, but much of the discussion is misaimed and peripheral to any effort that would attain the desired end. The painful truth about K-12 reform, as it is usually termed, is that what we really need is revolution (complete restructuring, or what Michelle Rhee euphemistically calls "transformative reform"), not mere reform. And the revolution, the needed overhaul, the total change that must ensue is simply stated but difficult to achieve. It really begins and ends with a higher quality of teacher, a classroom-tested bearer of at least a master's degree in a legitimate discipline (not attained in departments of education but in departments of natural science, social science, and the humanities), a true professional.

So there you have it. As with most important problems, the needed program is or should be simply stated, but it is difficult to achieve. And, as in those other cases, our chronic problem in addressing the issue at hand is that we do not address the issue at hand: Rather, we create countless distractions for ourselves, some of which are intellectually interesting and sometimes make people feel very smart through extensive discussion--- but constitute wasted effort contributive not one whit toward the solution of the truly important matter putatively under discussion.

Thus it is that in education we create many discussions, apparently very interesting to adults who like to haggle verbally, but which have no possibility of advancing a high quality education for children and adolescents. So, for example, if you have ever thought that better education will be attained through smaller schools, larger schools, classrooms with boys only, classrooms with girls only, exciting curricula focused on the arts or science or math, schools created by and run by parents or teachers or communities--- think again. Whatever virtues such educational initiatives may or may not have, they are not germane to the topic of attaining educational excellence.

Because if schools founded on such beliefs and strategems lack well-trained teachers, all founders. Excellent teachers are the key to attaining excellent education. I have in a previous article defined an excellent education as a rich liberal arts curriculum delivered by excellent teachers. Of the two main features of an excellent education, excellent teachers are by far the most important. Because truly excellent teachers who are experts in their fields of study could write their own curriculum and deliver meaningful subject area content in history, literature, natural science, economics, history, and the fine arts all as a matter of their own training and intellectual inclination.

Celebrate and despair. Achieving educational excellence is just that easy and just that hard. Almost everyone with whom I have discourse--- and I have lively discussions with people representative of many walks of life and strains of ethnicity--- are a long way from even grasping the advanced level of training of teachers for which I advocate (see previous articles, especially concerning the definition of an excellent teacher), much less being ready, willing, and able to apply the elbow grease needed to get the job done.

We would have to dismantle all current programs of teacher training to attain the quality of teaching that would be necessary to attain educational excellence. That would require enormous effort and cut against many entrenched polical interests. Then we would have to institute the program of teacher training for which I have advocated in previous articles. That would require more enormous effort. Thus it is that I cite the necessity of pursuing "transformative educational reform" (revolution) of a kind that we must have but have many miles to go before readying ourselves for the task.

But understand this: We will have no meaningful change in our K-12 system of education until we focus like a laser on improving teacher training. Any other discussions are intellectual pastimes for adults that will accomplish nothing at all for the students themselves, who want and are capable of so much more.