Train Teachers Like Doctors

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

I heartily endorse this approach to teacher education...

...with one fundamental caveat:

Make sure that the supervising teacher - what the article refers to as the "skilled practitioner" - is truly so...

...and willing to share.

The tale of two SIU student teachers back in 1968:

• Student Teacher #1: Was assigned to a supervising/mentor teacher who took it totally serious, made the student teacher sit in his class two weeks observing, writing lesson plans, doing some spot teaching, all before having the class turned over to him. Even then, the supervising teacher stayed in the room much of the time, observing the student teacher's performance, and having critique sessions. After that, there was still a weekly conference and surprise visits.

• Student Teacher #2: Met with his supervising/mentor teacher the first day and sat in the back of his class to observe. The next day, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, the supervising teacher was absent, and the student teacher was given control of the classroom by himself with no substitute teacher. The next day, the supervising teacher was back, took the class, and told the student teacher to prepare a lesson plan for the next day...that THAT would be his first day of official teaching. That next day, the student teacher took control and the supervising teacher sat in the back of the room...for maybe 10 minutes, whereupon, the supervising teacher walked up to the front of the room, whispered: "You're doing fine" and left, never to return. There were no conferences, no spot visits, no reviewing of lesson plans.

The total student-teaching experience lasted like seven weeks, April-May, no less.

I must confess, I do not know what happened to Student Teacher #1, although with his preparation, I would say that he probably did well on his own and lived happily ever after.

I do know what happened to Student Teacher #2. He took a year off, not the now-popular "gap year", but to join the Illinois National Guard, go off to Fort Leonard Wood Missouri for basic and advanced individual training, then back home to do the weekend warrior thing. The following summer, he applied for one of many teaching jobs that were available in Cairo School District Number One due to the exodus of faculty following the formal integration of CSD #1 while he was at Fort Lost in the Woods. He took the math job, was handed a list of the textbooks used in the classes to be taught, and turned loose to teach...

...coincidentally, just like he had been "trained".

Well, hell, maybe that's why he was successful, at least measured by longevity...

...since I - yes I was Student Teacher #2 who was thrown into the deep end of the teaching pool to sink or swim - taught at my alma mater for 39 years!

If the United States were to change its method of training teachers and go to a doctor-like intern system (don't hold your breath!), it needs to be damn sure that it vets its supervising teachers so that they are like the one that Student Teacher #1 above had...

...not the type that I had!

For whatever reason (maybe it was my military training :-) I made it. But, what I got, was equivalent to the TFA model...the 6-week-wonders.

The "data" is in on TFA...

...they do not even meet the average for longevity of beginning teachers.

So...

The intern system sounds good "on paper"...

...but, like they say about battle plans in the military, that they go all to hell when the first shot if fired...

...the intern plan, unless the supervising teacher is truly a master interested in sharing his craft, will go all to hell when the first spit ball if fired, the first thumb tack is set in teacher's chair.

Oops, this old dinosaur showed his age again...

...when the first laser pointer is pointed, the first iPad is stolen.

On a final note, in line with the closing of the article above...

...spotted on t-shirts anywhere teachers gather: