As an undergraduate sophomore I wrote a (somewhat confrontational) letter to the editor of my college newspaper. Over the past few months it has  to come up more and more so I figured I’d re-release it in the digital age. The letter stemmed out of the frustrating question that many education students find themselves asking, “I spend how much money learning how to teach and spend hours and hours in classes taught by professors who have never had instruction in effective teaching strategies?” Content and pedagogy are not the same.

It was meant to create some uneasiness, be a little indignant, maybe create some conflict. It did. Some (students and professors) loved the letter; others hated it. A teammate of mine had a history professor devote 45 minutes of a 75-minute class to complaining about the letter and it’s author. (Though he never reached out to me – he only complained to his captive audience). Other professors did reach out, always fairly positive. Some asked if the letter was about them (a brave question).

So, here it is.

Dear Editor:

These days it often seems hard to open a newspaper or listen to a news report without running across something about the quality of education in our country.  Or more specifically how it compares to the quality of education in other industrialized nations.  It would seem that as children across the world enter school at the age of 4 or 5, they are at par with each other.  However, as Americans enter middle school we seem to be performing at a lower level than students of other countries.  Following that pattern through high school and college, the gap widens.  So what is going on here?  Well, it would seem that one of two things is happening here: either Americans are genetically less intelligent than the rest of the industrialized world, or we have a problem with the education system in our country.

Well, I don’t believe that Americans are dumb (or at least not inherently dumb), so that makes the issue a systemic one.  So what is happening then?  Even a haphazard observer will notice that in the lower grades, things are working, and that as you approach the 17^th year of education (the 4^th year of college), things are not working quite so well.  So, then, what is happening in kindergarten and first grade that is not happening in college?  I’ll tell you: teacher education.

In order to be licensed to teach in an elementary classroom, a prospective teacher must complete about 40 credits in the field of education; that is nearly three full time semesters of talking only classes that teach you how to teach.  For junior high and high school, a prospective teacher needs about 30 credits, two semesters, of classes focused on how to teach effectively.  And college?  How much schooling do prospective college professors need, in the subject of teaching, in order to be placed in front of a class?  Zero.  Yes, that’s right, for the $18,615 you paid in tuition this year to go to school, your professors are not required to have any formal education on how to teach a class.  Sure, they need their master’s degree, but in some states you need that to teach at the elementary and secondary school as well (in New York a teacher must receive their master’s degree within five years of when they begin teaching or their license to teach will be revoked).  Moreover, when a person is licensed to teach at an elementary or secondary level, the need to be recertified every so often (every seven years in the state of Vermont).  So not only are these teachers forced to be certified, if they do not continue to educate themselves about the current trends of education, they will no longer be allowed to teach.  

So what this all means is that an 18-year-old, first year student, who has taken one 3-credit education course, who pays money to be here, quite possibly has more idea how to run a classroom than a first year professor with their PhD.  And the professor gets paid.  Granted, there are exceptions; there are wonderful teachers here who just have a knack for teaching.  We all know who those professors are.  But if you have ever sat in a class and wondered to yourself, or whispered to the person sitting next to you, “this is ridiculous, what is this professor doing?”  Well, they just don’t know any better.

So enough is enough, is there a solution?  Sure, hold our college professors to the same standard that we hold our kindergarten teachers.  What does this mean?  That someone sits down with our professors and gives them some instruction on how to run an effective classroom.  I am sure that you would agree that some professors would benefit greatly.

I certainly don’t expect every college in the nation to change its ways, but what if Saint Michael’s did?  What if over the summer the school required each professor to come in for a day or two and learn about effective teaching?  Two days won’t kill any professor, but it may save some students who would really benefit from a higher quality learning environment.  And furthermore, how valuable would it be for Saint Michael’s College to be able to say to prospective students, that our professors (and not the professors or our competing schools) are given some formal education on how to teach effectively.  They’re not just people with PhD’s.  They’re quality teachers.  With nothing to loose, and so much to gain, why are we all still forced to endure the professor(s) who can’t teach?  I don’t know either.

-Ben Schersten

Again, there are some amazing educators out there who haven’t had any formal training in effective instruction. But I still have to ask (nearly 15 years later), what would happen if colleges and universities started having mandatory professional development on instructional practices?

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