Those who can't do, teach

Here at IU, we’re known for a lot of fantastic schooling opportunities and educational endeavors.

Our School of Education is not in that bundle.

I came to IU thinking I was going to be a secondary English teacher.

I was still enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, but I decided I would finagle a way to get my B.A. in English and get certified via our School of Education.

However, after taking some classes and interacting with others at IU Wright Education Building, I decided I just couldn’t be enrolled in those classes for four years.

In my School of Education experience, I met teachers who were burned out, lackadaisical and lacking control over a classroom and experienced students who were uninspired, uneducated and worthless in classroom discussion.

So many students were there because they had no idea what else they wanted to do.
And many of them got away with it and thought they were in the right spot because discussions focused on what they liked or didn’t like in high school.

I grant that lazy students will exist across the board at any level of education, but I’m irked the School of Education is fostering and allowing such sluggishness because one of them might come in direct contact with my child some day.

I don’t really give a rat’s ass about the burned-out English major who sits next to me in class. He’ll never do anything that could royally screw up society.

But a bad teacher has a profound impact.

Teaching used to be respectable, not a career you would flop to if you had nothing else going for you.

Now, I do have some friends that have stuck it out and are succeeding in their education endeavors, but it’s only because they have amazing drive.

They are able to find out how to make their plans for the classroom work when their advisers cannot.

The school also produces some amazing alumnus as it’s a large school, and probability says someone will end up being successful.

We need these students to stay and stop the bad ones from poisoning an entire classroom or an entire school.

We need to hold the School of Education to a higher standard.

With hidden staff gems all around the school, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be up at the top of national lists.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu