Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Why I Compare Primary Care Physicians to Classroom Teachers | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Why I Compare Primary Care Physicians to Classroom Teachers | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Why I Compare Primary Care Physicians to Classroom Teachers

In a forthcoming book, I compare the practice of primary care physicians to that of K-12 teachers. For some readers, the comparison may be a stretch since so many differences separate the two professions. [i]

Consider the following:

*Doctors go to school eight years (undergraduate and graduate) to secure an M.D. and then spend another two to six years (of which most are clinical practice) learning a specialty; most teachers spend five years (of which six months to a year are in supervised classroom practice) to earn a bachelors and then a master’s degree in education; those who receive alternative certification have little to no time in supervised teaching prior to entering