According to Amanda Ripley, author of Where The Smart Kids Are, “the average teacher-to-be does about 12 to 15 weeks of student teaching. Once on the job, most teachers get nominal supervision, and 46 percent quit within 5 years. It is time, finally, to start training teachers the way we train doctors and pilots, with intense, realistic practice, using humans, simulations, and master instructors – time to stop saying teaching i hard work and start acting like it is.”