Plumbers and auto mechanics have longer apprenticeships than teachers. It's a difficult job, and we give them 12 weeks of student teaching and they're done. The saddest statistic is that in the first five years there's a disproportionate number of dropouts from the profession among the top 25 percent in academic ability. They leave because of lack of support, loneliness and poor placements. Mentoring is a key support to a beginning teacher, he says, because many teaching skills are gained only through experience.
Novices benefit when long-time teachers share their rich personal experiences.
There's an enormous amount of case knowledge that goes into being a good teacher, and you can't give it to them in college. One of the things we learned is that it takes at least five years to become a competent teacher, and maybe seven or eight. Some never do reach that level. Berliner would like to see an additional year or so of teacher education, to include an apprenticeship, and additional pay for expert teachers who supervise or mentor novices. His observations, first made a few years ago, are in stunning agreement with a report issued in September 1996 by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.