Status Quo: Stay or Go?

It appears that the hot topic in education in Indiana this week is teacher training, specifically those who take untraditional paths to the classroom.

The debate that pits content against pedagogy and enthusiasm seems to frequently rage, often ignoring needs of the children.

The Indianapolis Business Journal’s J.K. Wall wrote about the overhaul of teacher training serving as a threat to college budgets, but Katherine Merseth, the director of teacher education at Harvard University, showed little sympathy.

“The dirty little secret about schools of education is that they have been the cash cows of universities for many, many years,” she said. “It’s high time that we broke up the cartel.”

Andy Gammill of the Indianapolis Star also took aim at the debate, addressing Teach For America by name, on Sunday. The most interesting aspect of his story on the Indy Star website is the comment section, where the divide on the debate is stark. In fact, the debate was so pitched, Gammill wrote a followup on his blog to answer some of the questions that came up.

If you scroll down into the comments on his followup, you will see that the Chief Community Builder at Schools Building Communities Patricia Melton jumped into the fray.