The article focuses on the current debate on the crisis of teacher education, pointing out some historic circumstances of either affirmation and amplification of school as the privileged place for teaching in the modern world, and also the emergence of the feeling that it did not accomplish the promise of developing autonomous citizens, free and equal in rights. We exemplify this crisis using data from PROGRAD and from the UFMG's "special staff group for teaching education" on the relation between candidate numbers and available places during its last 15 years of exams for university entrance. These data shows a continuous emptying of the teacher education undergraduate courses, referring both to entering the university and to graduating but choosing other more economically profitable jobs. This brings out relevant points to think about both the beginning and the continuous education process of teachers since, as a consequence of changes in social contemporary life, there is a mismatch between the processes of training and the emergence of new demands for which the education staff seems not always to be prepared to assume.
teacher education; teacher training; teaching staff; education crisis; UFMG teacher education