SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Part of Finnish school success: abolishing “teacher colleges”?

Although I seldom agree with him politically, I find Rick Salutin’s takes on many issues to be worth reading because they are well thought out and moderately stated.  I was sorry to see him leave the Globe and Mail’s op ed page where he was the token “leftie” columnist.

He has now resurfaced at the Toronto Star (quelle surprise!) in a big way with two articles, one on the importance of teachers and another arguing against school choice.

The one about teachers contains a lot of references to education in Finland.  Buried in the middle of the article is the following nugget (caps added by me for emphasis): 

The training [for Finnish teachers] averages from five to seven-and-a-half years — and is comparable to other professional degrees. All teachers must have a master’s degree, and do a thesis. THERE ARE NO SEPARATE TEACHERS’ COLLEGES OR CERTIFICATION PROGRAMS. The university degree is the licence to teach.

If Mr. Salutin is arguing for the abolition of our faculties of education, or at least the teacher training portions of their mandates, he, probably inadvertently, has identified the one action that would have the most positive impact on the future quality of education in Canada.

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