Teacher training and the improvement of public education

American Education, July, 1984 by Douglas S. Medlin

10. Belief in one's worth as a teacher. Finally, teachers themselves need to assume a new, positive, and (in the best sense of the word) militant attitude. It seems that for years the profession has been on the defensive, teachers a bit depressed and disillusioned, the whole enterprise a little bitter, a little cynical, and just a little hopeless.

Until all of us really believe that what we do is vitally important, influential, worthy of respect, and totally unique in its contribution to the future of the democratic way of life, we cannot hope to convey this new attitude to others. The basis for this new attitude can be found in the steps outlined above. For if we are convinced that we are the products of superior training, possessing special skills that can be found in no other professional group, deserving of the rewards which we shall surely receive as a result of superior performance and the "new professionalism,' and able to explain to the public in positive, sure terms what it is we do and why we do it, then the "lifetime' we have chosen as teachers, the future of American public education, and the welfare of our young will indeed be much better and brighter.