Prof. David C. Rose's comments on the training of prospective teachers (Letters, Aug. 1) prompt me to support his idea. As a retired professor from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a father of two, I have had a long beef with K-12 education and especially with colleges of education. What is necessary in my estimation is to have prospective teachers major in the subject or subjects they would like to teach, and then have them take a course or two on how to teach effectively.
All too often our schools do not really teach any particular important subject substantially, but mostly emphasize socially and politically correct ideas. Little wonder that most other nations' students outperform ours in all kinds of examinations. This is particularly evident in engineering where most of our students, by an overwhelming margin, are from abroad.
Leon W. Zelby
Norman, Okla.
