cover image Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers

Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers

Rita Kramer. Free Press, $27.95 (228pp) ISBN 978-0-02-917642-9

After a year of crisscrossing the country and observing the institutions that are producing the next generation's teachers, Kramer ( Maria Montessori ) concludes: ``Our schools of education are appalling.'' This indictment, hardly surprising to anyone who has experienced the gap between teacher certification requirements and the reality of the school room, is supported by the author's log of her visits to classrooms in private and public colleges and universities, among them State University of New York's Teachers College, Peabody College in Tennessee and Michigan State University. Often, knowledge as a value in itself and the mastery of subject matter as teacher goals are downplayed in favor of a leveling, therapeutic approach to one's students. A politicized and homogenized agenda is followed by prospective teachers, whose own educational backgrounds may be sparse. Kramer's tough-minded, much-needed critique is accompanied by constructive suggestions that offer grounds for optimism. (Sept.)