For the past several decades, teacher trainees have been learning social justice theories in the place of curriculum building and classroom management. This is problematic because what students learn is a direct result of what future teachers are being taught themselves.
Everyone knows that education is the way into the minds of children, who will then grow into societal contributors. Of course, there are competing theories about best teaching practices, even as growing research points to proven methods. We’ve addressed this in recent articles highlighting the benefits of pen-and-paper instruction and the science of learning, as well as supporting the need for civil discourse. Naturally, there is also disagreement over what and how to teach future teachers.
Here’s what’s not in dispute: The education teachers receive in college translates into K-12 classrooms. According to Jay Schalin of the James G. Martin Center, twentieth-century school reformers sought to recreate society pursuant to progressive and socialist ideologies under the guise of improving education. To effectively turn out teachers who will ensure that progressivism is taught to children, the plan went, progressivism must be instilled in our educators.
Today, we increasingly see how students are being fed indoctrination in place of math, science, and reading by teachers who were subjected to the same fate. We know that something urgently has to give, but what is the solution? Building a new system, or correcting the existing institutions?
That decision belongs to each state depending on their needs and data, so there is merit to both ideas. Regardless of which reform path is pursued, the present need is to improve the education programs that are producing this country’s teachers.
Florida did this by passing HB 1291 last year, which prohibits teacher preparation programs from basing themselves in theories which suggest that “systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
As Daniel Buck of the James G. Martin Center argues, “a revamped education program would spend far more time filling the minds of future teachers with math, science, literature, and history—the best that has been thought and said—and less time discussing classroom practice in the abstract. When future teachers do learn pedagogical practices, the work must be unapologetically practical.”
The reformation of K-12 education systems will never come to pass if the programs that shape our teachers are actively working against it. What’s more, the consequences of indoctrination are many and severe (you can read more about this here). Teacher education and training programs must be practical, objective, and designed to support student success.
When prospective teachers are taught how to write a good exam, practice proven methods of discipline, exercise effective classroom management, and instill math, reading, science, and good values into developing minds, the students benefit the most.