Letters

Applauding Proposed MIT School of Education

To The Faculty Newsletter:

I am very excited (and more than a little surprised) at the possibility of a School of Education at MIT. I am particularly pleased to see the possible emphasis on an individualized approach. Sometime ago, I actually created what we called the "teacher preparation program" that sat in the Department of Urban Studies – partly because of my particular interest in inner city, urban schools. Interestingly, the kind of "mantra" for that program was an expression of the importance we gave to individualized instruction: "How do you come to understand someone else’s understanding?" This focus grew out of our MIT students' confusion and certainly surprise upon observing the high school students during their classes in our own inner city high school – Cambridge Rindge and Latin. This was a whole other world for our students but one where, perhaps paradoxically, they are particularly well equipped to help.

Now all of this may be moot (I hope not) if people are thinking primarily (or only) about education at MIT or other institutions of higher learning. In any case, I would be really happy to participate in whatever way might be useful and appropriate in planning and development as this program comes into being. I look forward to hearing more. And a special hello to Leon.

Jeanne Bamberger
MIT Affiliate

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