OCR Text |
Show The Need For Teachers The work of the Advisory Council of the Democratic National Na-tional Committee has been a subject of much praise in recent months. " The praise is justified. Recently the council turned its attention to the problems of education. Included in its report were the following observations observa-tions which we heartily endorse. "A far more formidable task than housing tomorrow's students will be providing them with good teachers. "About 1,500,000 new teachers must be recruited over the next 10 yearsi f the present ratio of teachers to pupils in the public schools is to be maintained. This exceeds the total number now in service. It would require about one-third of all the four-year four-year college graduates expected in the same 10 years. Considerably Consider-ably fewer new college graduates than this can be expected to enter teaching even under improved conditions. Further, if present trends prevail a substantial proportion of new teachers may be drawn not from the ablest category from the bottom half of the ability spectrum of college students. Unless standards for teaching are raised and unless teaching becomes more attractive attrac-tive to young peopleof high ability we may wind up with the tragic reality of poorer rather than better education. "There is no mystery about the shortage of good teachers. The 'small generation' of the Thirties has had to supply teachers for the 'large generation' of the Forties and Fifties. But an even more important factor is the increased market demand for able and well educated people for all kinds of non-teaching functions in our society. Despite recent substantial increases in teacher salaries the schools and colleges suffer a competitive disadvantage against other bidders for top-quality manpower whose purses are stouter. "It should never be forgotten that our educational system is both a consumer and a producer of manpower. The human talents of one generation are required to develop the human talents of the next. If schools and colleges are deprived of their fair share of society's able manpower society will pay a heavy price later on; the effect is cumulative. The United States is today storing up serious trouble for itself. When as an example industry takes the lion's share of today's new crop of able young scientists and engineers it cuts down the nation's capacity to produce an equally good crop later. "The central issue of teacher supply for the next 10 years is not whether enough people will enter teaching. It is whether qualified people will choose teaching against other careers. If we act as if the problem is merely one of numbers our schools and colleges will become mediocrity mills at a moment of history when the pursuit of excellence is imperative. "Obviously the first requirement for improving the supply of good teachers is to improve their compensation. This will help attract them and hold them. Simultaneously the prestige of teaching must be lifted to a high level. Along with higher salaries and prestige must come a large scale strengthening of the teacher preparation programs of the colleges and universities. univer-sities. "These approaches will strengthen the supply of able teachers. The problem must be attacked also from the demand side. The number of teachers required is determined not only by the number of students but by the method of teaching. Many of our conventional practices in education are demonstrably obsolete and inefficient. They waste the abilities of teachers and the time of students. |