The Rude Pundit - A Tale of Two Nations and Their Future Teachers

[malthaussen]

3. None of this is necessary

Respect is what is needed. It is perhaps inevitable that Americans should equate respect with money.

PA used to have an extensive system of institutions which were called "State Teacher's Colleges." Their avowed purpose: to turn out good teachers for the Commonwealth. But that was when the profession of teaching was respected. It had to be, because there sure-enough wasn't any money in it.

Flash forward to today, or actually a few decades ago. The "State Teacher's Colleges" are still active, but they eschew that name. They all proudly strut their stuff as "Universities." I wonder if their pride in their former mission has also gone the way of their name? Somewhere along the line from A to B, the image of "Teacher" as a dedicated, hardworking, grey-haired no-nonsense old lady with an apple on her desk has shifted to that of a greedy, lazy, inefficient drone plundering the public treasury. And children, if that is the image we have of our teachers, then throwing money at the problem ain't gonna fix it. I imagine, in fact, it would exacerbate it.

-- Mal