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Show Educators express need tfor reform The need for reforms in teacher education, as evidenced by the Student Utah Education Association Asso-ciation recommendations, is only part of the symptoms of an unhealthy un-healthy education system. This is the opinion of Dr. Larry Pat-matier, Pat-matier, University progessor of Education as well as educators throughout the country. schools who are desirous of providing pro-viding a different atmosphere for their students to work under. The education editor of Saturday Satur-day Review dealt with the need for change in educational institutions institu-tions in a recent article entitled "The Crisis of Confidence-and Beyond." "The two most powerful power-ful forces for educational reform with innovative ideas, have a neutralizing neu-tralizing affect on all the creativity creativ-ity and freshness the new teachers initially possess. Charles Silberman, author ot the new book "Crisis in the Classroom, Class-room, explains: "It is fruitless to reform teacher education without simultaneously trying to reform the schools in which the teachers even more then classroom teachers, teach-ers, for they have the responsibility responsibi-lity of thinking about the means and ends of education for an entire school or school system, rather than for a single classroom. They are not now being educated in this manner." (Charles Silber-manl Silber-manl The raison d'etre of teaching and administration procedures must be constantly re-evaluated, but this matter of personal and institutional change cannot be accomplished by fiat. Somehow, people feel threatened by change; and studen-ts, education teachers, public school administrators and faculty need to feel less so. The purpose behind necessary change must be comprehended by everyone every-one affected. In the problems confronting educators, it is appropriate appro-priate to say, "We have met the enemy , and they are us!" From Dr. Palmatier's point of view, one of the stumbling blocks in education innovation is simply termed "institutionalized mistrust." mis-trust." The mistrust comes from the individual's perception of his role and the roles of others in the educational system. If the administrator admini-strator of a public school sees himself as a benevolent dictator watching over a benighted faculty onH pvpn more henishted student- role perception with m, midal structure: ay scll administrator, te S,? 'b dent. Dr. Palma fd0 -ell to change 2 itanan set-up which b schools. And it isnoto f F est m administrations i1- teachers as well. There k " been any basis for JZ children's, teenager's J J student's ability to e ol create, integrate, quest generally learn " Fortunately, there are eicfe JV who have recognized the need ' altenng their role to fit (he, needs of their students. stl This brings us back to , 10 education of teachers and aoW di strators, for as Mr. Silbermar " pointed out, "A school ad ,a strator is not likely to be ablet '" ask probing questions about ej, c0 cational purpose, and almost : tainly will be unable to provide,; even judge the answers oi usefulness of the means proposed 10 to achieve them, unless his edit ' tion has equipped him to t & seriously and systematically alw io education." qu It would be imnnssiU fir I 0 - -n - f I sk-J4 J ' i will teach." Obstruction to innovations in teacher education, such as are suggested by the SUEA proposal, comes largely from school administrators admini-strators who often find it difficult to examine the purpose behind body, how can the school be anything but authoritarian? If the teacher sees himself as a civil employee, subserviant to procedures proce-dures often outlined by non-teachers, non-teachers, how can the teaching be anything but unprofessional. If The past decades have seen major improvements in teacher as well as student education, and perhaps these major improvements improve-ments are cause for our discontent. discon-tent. In viewing the whole education edu-cation scene, our level of expectancy expec-tancy has risen markedly and we are not content with a half-effort at improving the quality of anyone's any-one's education, not to mention that of teachers. "Historically, teacher education has been so ineffective, so irrelevant irrele-vant as to only perpetuate the authoritarian system found in our public shcools, explianed Dr. Pat-matier Pat-matier during an interview. It is his feeling that teacher education that have appeared in this cen-tury-the civil rights movement and the student rebellion stirred widespread ferment and dramatized drama-tized the desperate need for radical radi-cal reformation of the educational enterprise, but ultimately they proved only how resistant our educational institutions are to change." (Saturday Review, Sept. 19, 1970) Resistant though they may be, they must change. One of the reasons why our educational institutions in-stitutions must change from top to the bottom is directly related to teacher education. When groups like the Ford Foundation fund experiments at 40 different brief space, to attempt losug; cot detailed ways of imp roving edit tra tion in the directions which p(. tlu vide for more self-determinafc s?i more openness, more creativity r 0111 the classroom. It's clear that I " SUEA "Proposals for Improv; ! ment" provide food for though and action. The educator M: 1C Dewey offered one approach "The lesson is clear," Mr, Dew; I wrote over two-thirds of a cento pro ago. "What is needed is improve- oral ment of education, not simply b and turning out teachers who can dt a si better things that are now neee:- con sary to do, but rather by change; the concept of what conslitifc mi. education." obvi "Our most processing educational problem is learning how to create and maintain a humane environment environ-ment in our schools. " "doing things a certain way." Providing teachers with a sense of purpose, or, if you will, a philosophy of education, is the central task of teacher education, declared Mr. Silberman in his book. This sense of purpose the student sees himself as an information; disposal with no real encouragement of his free spirit, how can he be anything but uninspired. un-inspired. The present education hierarchy hier-archy is based on the traditional has been geared to accommo- institutions to design innovative "The contents and procedures of teacher education frequently have no demonstrable relevance to the actual teaching task. " means "developing teachers' ability abi-lity and their desire to think seriously, deeply and continuously continu-ously about the purpose and consequence con-sequence of what they do about the ways in which their curriculum curri-culum and teaching methods, classroom and school organization, organiza-tion, testing and grading procedures proce-dures affect purpose and are affected af-fected by it." "School administrators-principals, administrators-principals, superintendents, curriculum curri-culum coordinators, guidance counselors, and so on need the kind of education (purpose evaluating) evalu-ating) we have been talking about dating school districts by perpetuating per-petuating the conformity and repression re-pression of teachers and students. The entire system, in his judgement, judge-ment, has been directed at "keeping "keep-ing the lid on," essentially a negative nega-tive kind of system. Dr. Patmatier has been concerned for quite some time about the authoritarian approach to education and has been working with various public teacher education programs, great acclaim is heard. Yet such innovations innova-tions are relatively ineffective, according to Dr. Patmatier. If any of the innovative teacher education edu-cation programs are to make any contribution to the education of the young, the school systems must be flexible and non-authoritarian. The school systems which receive these new teachers, filled "'nimUlumr.HMiiifrw'i.rt MlMWSWSIflWWf -OUJ m A '. ' x -of -.. ;.;.-. . J, it" ; n 1 k "! 1 . i r- . i David Seely, secondary education major, observes i |
