Conant Book Neglects Recruitment, Belittles M.A.T., Ed Professor Says

President Emeritus James B. Conants new book, The Education of American Teachers, places too much emphasis on the training of teachers and too little on the crucial problem of recruiting them, Theodore R. Sizer, assistant professor of Education, said in an interview yesterday.

Although Conant proposes that teachers be drawn from the top 30 per cent of high school graduates, he gives no suggestions as to how this should be done, Sizer said. He claimed that the teaching profession today is nowhere near Conant's goal: too often teachers come not from the top of the academic ladder but from the bottom.

The Master of Arts in Teaching Program that Sizer directs has made special efforts to recruit good students from Eastern liberal arts colleges with no previous training in education. But Sizer pointed out that The Education of American Teacrers plays down the importance of such "fifth year" programs, and "is actually concerned with the big universities [which give undergraduate training in education]; Indiana, for example, trains more teachers in a year than all the M.A.T. programs in the country." Conant believes that a proper four-year bachelor of arts program--complete with courses in education and practice teaching--should be sufficient for elementary and high school teachers.

Sizer had no quarrel, however, with Conant's recommendations for drastically revising state education laws to give immediate certification to any graduate of a legitimate teacher training program whose competence is attested to by the president of the institution.

He pointed out that if this recommendation were adopted graduates of the M.A.T. program could gain immediate certification in all states, something that is impossible at present because some states require special courses or types of training that Harvard does not offer--California, for example, requires courses in "visual aids." Conant's recommendations would do away with all such requirements and allow individual colleges and universities to determine their own programs of preparation.

Although the actual impact of Conant's recommendations on program of the Graduate School of Education would be small, the book has generated wide interest among faculty members, and will be the subject of a pasel discussion at the School's formal opening on Oct.23.

One member of the panel, Israel Scheffler, professor of Education and Philosophy, explained that "many of the things Conant has said are already in operation at the School of Education."

Scheffler applauded Conant's recommendation that courses in "foundations of education" be tied more closely to parent academic disciplines, like history and philosophy, and said that he and other Ed School professors are already making this connection in their courses.

He also welcomed Conant's emphasis on the importance of practice teaching as a test for prospective teachers. But Scheffler cautioned that practice teaching in itself was not sufficient. "Wherever possible, methods courses should be integrated with practice teaching at a critical level," he said