When Register editorial writer Linda Fandel (now governor’s education aide) went to Finland to study education, she found out that teachers there get a bachelor’s degree in their content specialty, then a master’s degree in teaching — all before entering the classroom and all on the state’s dime. Based on that, plus a half-dozen other sound policies, Fandel told us Finland’s students beat the socks off the U.S.’s and Iowa’s kids.
Has the Register forgotten? Or did Fandel misinform us? Or is the effusive, self-promoter Michelle Rhee now the editorial board’s new guru (“Why Pay Teachers More for Master’s?,” March 24 editorial)?
Rhee is to education what Lindsay Lohan is to the acting profession. Her edge on “evidence-based” research is paper thin. “Hunch-based” is more accurate.
Teachers who know their subject matter and understand how to teach