In my time here, I have had some truly remarkable professors. They have challenged me to work harder, think more critically and reconsider my assumptions about the world. However, the most life-changing teacher I had was my humanities teacher in my public middle school in the suburbs of Portland, Ore. Sadly, the wonderful experience I had with Mr. Wandell, a University of Chicago graduate with a flair for historical simulations that capitalized upon our adolescent competitiveness and imaginations, was a rare one in the American public education system. Many students suffer from thoroughly uninspiring schooling experiences where the countdown to the last five minutes of class is the highlight of their days.
Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller contends that teacher education is "an industry of mediocrity" that fails to convince the brightest and highest-performing graduates to enter a vastly underpaid profession in the United States. To Deborah Kenny, founder of the Harlem Village Academics charter schools, and media executive Barry Diller, who is underwriting Kenny's project to build a graduate education school for teachers in Harlem, the problem lies in lack of training. Keller points to Amanda Ripley's "The Smartest Kids in the World," which notes that Finnish schools where only top students get into teacher-training programs produce significantly better results than American schools, where only 23 percent of teachers come from the top third of college graduates.
Advocates of more stringent education requirements for teachers argue that many teachers may be knowledgeable about teaching, but not knowledgeable about the subjects they teach. Yet more demanding teacher education programs would do little to encourage Ivy League and other top-tier college graduates with diverse career opportunities to opt for teaching over other, more lucrative options.
At the most basic level, salaries are the biggest barrier to the teaching profession's recruitment of highly educated recent college graduates. However, the under-compensation of the men and women who do some of the most critical work in the educational system is a topic that has been discussed at length without significant progress. What I propose instead is a low-capital, high-return investment on getting college students excited about teaching for the love of the occupation itself.
College-affiliated programs that put high-achieving students into classroom settings to experience the rewards of teaching firsthand could allow institutions to give back to communities while nudging students to consider teaching as a profession. Developing programs that give top-tier college students to exposure to the incredible rewards of teaching benefits without months of commitment to full-time internship-style programs would benefit both schools and students in such programs. For often cash-strapped public school systems, the free labor that students represent is a tremendous boon; for college students looking to bolster their creativity and gain pre-professional experiences while reaping the benefits of volunteer work, such programs would be feel-good experiences that contribute to their development as leaders and thinkers.
Programs like this benefit two groups of students: first, those who want to go into teaching or child-related professions reap direct benefits by working with K-12 students. Second, for students who are interested in developing leadership skills, teaching is an opportunity to develop a unique skill set that can translate to any number of professions. If one can stand up in front of a classroom of 25 second graders and capture their attention for the duration of a 60 minute lesson, then one can do anything.
Perhaps most compellingly, integrating programs of this type into existing academic schedules thereby allowing students who may be have a passing interest in education, but would not seek an internships in a school environment captures a segment of the student body that isn't served by demanding apprenticeships. At best, programs of this type will inspire highly qualified students who wouldn't have considered teaching to go into teaching; at worst, they'll give both students and schools tangible benefits.
