Dan Brown 2

Dan Brown is currently posting about a new initiative by the government to make the teacher preparation programs better. From the government's website "We need to give schools the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and give teachers the flexibility to teach with creativity and passion." They plan to do this by imposing regulations on teacher education programs. This could be a good idea or a bad idea. It is generally a good idea to want better teacher education programs. No one can argue that. The problem is, what determines what is a good program? Teaching is not an exact art. Different things work for different teachers. If they were able to pinpoint exactly what makes a great teacher, the US wouldn't be below average in many educational statistics. So I will take a wait and see approach with this new reform. However, I will not be too optimistic based on the failures of No Child Left Behind and so on.