Arkansas Democrat Gazette article March 6, 2002
Paul Greenberg, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist
"The sun also rises ..."
"Closer to home, there's more old news from still another blue-ribbon commission that's going to fix public education in Arkansas. Instead it seems fixated on how to finance it. There's a lot of talk about how to raise money but not standards. The actual content of education may get a lick, but not even a promise. Which gives the commission a lot in common with departments of education across the state.
One essential problem with education, maybe the essential problem - is the poor education of teachers. See the Miseducation of American Teachers by James D. Koerner, which was published in 1963. Nothing essential has changed since.
How can teachers educate others when they themselves are only trained, not educated? A model program that treats education as a profession exists right here in Arkansas at Lyon College; it requires a liberal education of its students before they begin practicing on students. But most departments of education still emphasize form over content. And it shows.
Instead of sweeping away the educanto and demanding results, this latest commission, like its predecessors, seems to be concentrating on how to finance the schools, not improve them. Soon enough the state can expect one more study of education, rather than better education. Nothing new about that."
Log Cabin Democrat article of 9/15/98
W.C. Jameson: Reviving teacher education
http://www.thecabin.net/stories/091598/ope_reviving.html
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article 7/30/97
Paul Greenberg: The Lyon Plan - Quality Education Lives