Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Pi Phi
Is this "those who can, do. Those who can't, teach"??
|
Maybe, but probably not, and this is a much a response to GA Beta's points too.
Likely I'm defensive because I'm a teacher, but if you think about it, in most k-12 education fields, there's not much opportunity for direct "doing" anyway. (I mean, what job is it that a high school history teacher is teaching instead of doing? Publishing non-fiction historical best sellers? Are all high school English teachers failed fiction writers by this theory? In a lot of high school content fields, teaching is the only "doing" of that kind of work for the most part, and teaching can't really all start at college.)
And although it's certainly true that the average test scores are among the lowest for ed. majors, I'd like to remind people that any given individual teacher could be an exception. I assure you that my scores were not among the lowest, nor were many of those of my colleagues.
Education may be the major of last resort, but it doesn't mean the worst folks actually end up teaching or that every teacher falls into this pattern.
Would education be better is smarter people were teachers? Maybe: some studies have linked teacher intelligence and student success, but there might be drawbacks too. I think really smart people are bothered even more by the flaws in the system and if they weren't empowered to make systemic changes, it might lead to more turnover and volatility. Who knows?
You can be darn sure, though, that you aren't going to get smarter people without A) paying a lot more, which I think is unlikely to happen OR B) the rest of the job market starts stinking so bad that teaching looks better by comparison, which I think has happened in a certain fields and overall with health and retirement benefits.