Not So Fast, Pundit

By Gerardo M. Gonzalez

With a new administration at the helm in Washington, it is exciting to see education continuing at the top of the nation's agenda. The public dialogue and the attention education issues are receiving in the media, in statehouses, and in Congress promise to be beneficial in the long run. But it's also important not to let misinformation and old stereotypes go unchallenged.

In a recent editorial, the syndicated columnist George F. Will blames poor teacher training for the plight of education in our nation's schools. What is the point of putting more teachers in the classrooms, he asks, if students will merely be taught by inadequately trained teachers? A good teacher, this pundit asserts, needs training only in his or her subject matter, and a degree in education is needless—and possibly even detrimental.

Mr. Will suggests that if he were ill and could miraculously be treated by either Hippocrates or a recent graduate of the Johns Hopkins University medical school trained in the most modern techniques, he would choose the latter. But if, on the other hand, he could choose to have his child taught either by Socrates or by a "freshly minted holder of a degree in education,"...