The authors blasted many of the problems of today's schools. With politicians around blaming the teachers, teachers, teachers for the poor performance of some schools, Troen and Boles take aim at the way public schools are viewed by society -- as a second-class profession. Education schools are notoriously easy to enter and graduate from, the pay is poor, and the profession itself is flat, giving little encouragement or opportunity for teachers to better their instruction in the schools, and those with advanced knowledge and skills perform the same tasks as the novice. No wonder charter schools, home schooling, and private schools are flourishing, they argue, and the immense drain those cause on public schools would diminish significantly if the public policy designed a route entering professionals would take to grow from student teacher to master teacher.
I applaud the efforts by the authors. Perhaps someone out there will take notice. And someone needs to -- fast.
