It's the Teacher, Stupid! Thoughts on Restructuring Education in the United States (ePub)

Imagine, if you will, a group of doctors trained in 1850 seeing for the first time a modern operating room. They would, of course, be overwhelmed - and not just with the equipment! Even the process of diagnosing the patient's problem would be totally alien.
We can probably all agree that change for the sake of change, whether in education or elsewhere, is not necessarily desirable. In fact, Melcher's logic frequently takes us back to some of the successful structures and patterns of education which have been abandoned in a decades-long, discouraging parade of failure: our attempts at curriculum reform, the introduction of more and more social programs, the growing dominance of athletics and the ever-less-demanding levels of academic achievement. In the course of these observations he makes us realize that without substantial qualitative changes in the structure of the school "system(s)" themselves, the general quality of public education will continue its descent to ever-lower levels of mediocrity.
And nothing of this accelerating process, which has been characterized by others as "the dumbing down of America," is as critical as the ever-shrinking pool of high quality teachers. Always in short supply, the number of bright and well-educated young people who graduate from college and enter the teaching profession is shrinking rapidly. Mostly because teaching salaries have never kept pace with the economic development in this country, a situation which in turn has been encouraged by the lack of professionalism projected by teacher unions, the young people who should be exercising their talents in the classroom are entering other businesses and professions where their efforts are more respected and better compensated.
This is a book by a man who has worked with schools and school children for forty years, a man who appeals to our common sense to begin the painful process of necessary change.