In an auditorium full of high school students, teachers, and college students training to be teachers, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, actor Tony Danza, and others on Monday hailed teaching as a rewarding field in need of new and innovative talent.
Touting the U.S. Department of Education's TEACH program, a national campaign to attract more people to be teachers, Duncan told the gathering of about 1,000 people at Temple University's Performing Arts Center that teaching was crucial to the country's future.
"If we can attract the next generation of great teachers . . . we're going to transform education in this country," Duncan said in a panel discussion that included Danza, Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, and other educators.
Duncan said that, while there had been improvements in education over the last few years, "we have to get dramatically better as a country" on the issue.
Danza, who spent a year teaching English to sophomores at Philadelphia's Northeast High School for the A&E reality-TV show Teach, drew loud cheers from students when he talked about his experience at the school.
Teaching the students "was the greatest thing I ever did in my life," Danza said.
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