NAS Board Member Sandra Stotsky has been anatomizing different aspects of the education school debacle. In her review of Daisy Christodoulou's Seven Myths about Education, Stotsky explores the pernicious effects of education-school pedagogical theories that just don't work. In a follow-up article, Stotsky recommends raising the bar for entry into teacher licensing programs, and making sure that would-be teachers are educated in the discipline they are supposed not to teach in addition to (or instead of) the hollow and misguided education they will receive in education schools. Finally, Stotsky explores the effects of the education-school debacle on high-school students: steadily diminishing ability to read, rendering them utterly unfit for college.
The articles are worth reading for their inherent interest, but it is that last point that particularly caught our attention. College education is impossible without students prepared for college, and the education schools have done as much as any one institution to make would-be college students uneducable. Stotsky's sketch is an alarm bell for anyone interested in higher education.
Image Credit: Public Domain.
