Re: we're still our own worse enemy

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu>]

----- Original Message -----
From: ruth_weiner <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: we're still our own worse enemy


> I am afraid that I am going to jump on an old hobbyhorse.  Teaching
> ("educating") is done best in schools and by teachers.  The classroom has
an
> ambiance in which learning is the primary objective.  I have taught enough
> classes to know that the students do not sit there brightly and eagerly
> awaiting the next pearl of wisdom, but they are there to learn,
nonetheless.
> We need as a society to do a better job teaching teachers, and to make
> teaching K-12 much more attractive than it is so that more knowledgeable
> people will take it up as a profession.  This means paying teachers more
and
> giving them decent working conditions.  It also means raising one's
children
> so that the teacher isn't the only person in their lives who provides some
> discipline (yes, I have children.  And grandchildren).
>
> The airline flight attendant wouldn't have been worried if her basic
> education had been geared toward encouraging her to figure out,
> dispassionately, the answer to her concerns.
>
> Clearly only my own opinion.


And mine, too, Ruth.   Very well put.   What better way to reach the next
generations than through their teachers.  And,  I cannot understand why DOE
has virtually eliminated its programs to teach teachers that its
predecessor, the AEC, ran so successfully for so many years.

Hope to see you in Denver.

Warm regards,

Ron Kathren

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