Letters

To the Editor:

I read with dismay the comments by John Merrow about the 1,300 institutions that supposedly provide mediocre programs in teacher education ( "The Teacher Shortage: Wrong Diagnosis, Phony Cures," Oct. 6, 1999). Obviously, some of these schools of miseducation do not deserve to be in business and should be closed. Just as apparently, Mr. Merrow did not visit many of the exemplary teacher education programs. If he had, he would have seen a very different kind of teacher education at work.

Just the other day, I returned from a real elementary school where my preservice students in the reading and language arts course had completed teaching lessons on the writing process to three classrooms of lively 3rd graders. Each of them had tutored 1st grade students in reading and writing and taught word processing to other children in the school's computer laboratory. They had been assisted by real classroom teachers, all highly experienced and knowledgeable about current methods in reading and language arts. These real teachers helped guide my students...