VIEWER REACTIONS

Unfair knock on schools

To The Berkshire Eagle

December 17, 1997

I was dismayed to read Seth Rogovoy's column on periodicals ["Students failed by failing teachers," Dec. 6] bashing teachers and I disagree with his assumption that the quality of schools is poor.

I admire and respect the home school movement and I agree with Mr. Rogovoy that Home Education Magazine is a fine journal offering excellent information about education. However, the information presented from Jonathan Leaf's article in the National Review would lead one to be misinformed about teacher education in Massachusetts (and other states as well). For the past four years, a student must earn a liberal arts degree before he/she may complete a teacher certification program. A teacher is then provisionally certified and must earn a Masters degree within five years.

The entrance requirements for the teacher certification program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts are stringent and the program is rigorous. Our students learn about child development, dynamics of learning, teaching strategies (including the many models of cooperative learning which Leaf naively dismisses as a monolithic evil), diversity, families, and the institution of school and its relationship to the individual and society.

My early childhood education students are bright, creative, excited to teach, and committed to being advocates for children. In my classes, I share my vision of school as a place where people who care about children come together to build a community that is synergistic to healthy human development. Ideally home schoolers would be a part of this community; the relationship could be mutually beneficial.
RONNA TULGAN

Williamstown, Dec. 8, 1997
The author is an assistant professor of education at M.C.L.A.

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