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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Is This a Good Guide for Teaching? « Diane Ravitch's blog

Is This a Good Guide for Teaching? « Diane Ravitch's blog:


Is This a Good Guide for Teaching?

I am a historian, I have spent years (decades) studying and writing about American education. I know my limitations. Aside from teaching graduate students in courses about the history of education and controversies in current education policy, I have not been a classroom teacher. That may be why I respect classroom teachers so much. I can’t do what they do. I would not know how to control students who are bored and don’t want to be there. I would not be able to teach a classroom of 35 adolescents who wish they were somewhere else. I would not know how to teach 24 feisty five-year-olds. I would not have the patience to spend all day with little children. I am awed when I meet the men and women who do it every day.
The upshot is that I never tell others how to teach. How could I? I haven’t done it. I can’t do it. I have no authority