One last word . . .

Two comments and a post by Jay Mathews at Class Struggle bring me back to my posts on the question from the PDK/Gallup Poll on American Education focused whether teachers are born or made.  In the poll 70% of the respondents said natural talent and 28% said college training.  In his post Mathews shares the response from Michael Milone a research psychologist to both the quality of the question and to the responses.

“First of all, they should never have included the question because it is completely absurd. Second, how can that many Americans be that stupid. (Oh, wait, never mind.) If just about any other profession other than teacher had been substituted, the answer would have gone the other way. What I find so annoying is that by including the question, they have validated the mistaken opinion (think attributional error) that there is no special training needed to become a teacher, and that people are born to it. Given that the majority of human behaviors, particularly those that are intentional, are shaped by life circumstances, education, and experiences, the notion of ‘natural talent’ for teaching is akin to associating intelligence with race or flatness to Earth.”


I find myself leaning more towards the training side though I understand that there is a balance and a necessary predisposition to want to work with young people.  Good teaching is far too complex and requires knowledge and experiences that do not come from natural talent.   Yes, we "talk" about the natural born teacher that intuitively does things that others find difficult to understand and do.  But, is it intuitive or did it come from a combination of experience, learning, and reinforcement in the classroom that results in this capacity?  I don't discount the necessary dispositions nor promote the traditional college experience as the only way to become a quality teacher.  The comment from Msetliff to my previous post uses the following words to identify these dispositions.

There are some traits, characteristics, etc., that are inherent such as personality, presence, passion for a subject, "a way" with kids, an ability to inspire that probably cannot be gained from a teacher prep program.

The comment also includes a suggestion for an apprenticeship model to support the learning process.  Having options and being able to differentiate is currently what is emerging in the field, causing some concern for teacher unions and college preparation programs.  Apprenticeship would provide districts like ours with the opportunity to share our beliefs and influence the instructional practices that we identify as components of Classroom 10.

Apprenticeship would be a lovely addition to our profession. Two years would be nice; five might be better, depending on the apprentice. Notice that we aren't differentiating in the world of teacher education based on the prior knowledge and skills of the apprentice teacher. Budding teachers who possess the basic essentials could be exposed to the best practitioners in big doses.


In response to his rant about the quality of the question Milone received this response from William Bushaw of PDK that the question is of poor quality and will not be used again.

“Every poll I’ve worked on, we have identified at least one question that at the time seemed like a good idea, but then did not end up being a particularly good question. This certainly qualifies as one of those questions. It will not be used again as long as I am the poll’s co-director.


“Fortunately for our readers, or in this case, maybe unfortunately, we promise to report the results of every question we ask. That keeps us from holding back on questions for which we don’t like the responses, which we believe would be unethical.

“Thanks for your e-mail, and as you can tell, we agree with you. The question was not well conceived.”