Teacher Education's Empty Suit

By Kevin Ryan and Karen Bohlin

Teaching is intrinsically and unavoidably a moral act. Schools and their classrooms and playgrounds are caldrons of moral matter, ethical issues, and the events that affect a young person's character. Some children slip into the habit of cheating; some become champions of the underdogs; and everyone's image of a good person, a good life, is profoundly affected by their long years in school. But while this may be a masterful grasp of the obvious, few in teacher education are acting upon it.

As Aristotle noted: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." Since the time of the Greeks, we have known that teachers, consciously or unconsciously, play a critical role in a child's habit or character formation. Fifteen years ago, Alan Tom reiterated this fact in his acclaimed book Teaching as a Moral Act (Longman, 1984). Ten years ago, John I. Goodlad, one of America's most influential educators, and his colleagues called the teacher education community to action with their book The Moral Dimension of Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 1990). Nevertheless, the overwhelming percentage of our teacher-training institutions provide future teachers with neither the preparation nor the mandate they need to help a...