Are the educational requirements to be a K-12 teacher overkill?

NEUROSPORT said:

you don't know anything about education do you ?

by your criteria places like Russia have the best education. kids there used to be ( when i studied there ) many years ahead of american kids in math and science.

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I don't know anything about Russian education, but that sounds plausible. American education sucks and lags behind many other countries.

NEUROSPORT said:

and how is it working out for them ? life expectancy for a russian man is 55 because they all die of alcoholism. all the kids get aborted ( two abortions for every live birth ) and the nation is dying out.

perhaps education is not just about math.

just a thought there for you ...

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You want a teacher to tell first-graders not to drink vodka and get abortions, instead of how to read and add?

The educational requirements are overkill for many grades but I feel we are lacking in actual knowledge requirments. I can remember being interested in history in highschool and asking my history teacher many questions about areas not covered in our textbook. My teacher could never give me an answer without first looking it up. The only history knowledge he seemed to have was that found in our textbooks. That made me wonder why he chose to be a history teacher. He clearly had no interest in the subject.

Another instance was in Jr. High. I was taking advanced calculus and my teacher taught us a method to problem solve. My father took one look at it and said you can skip this, and this, and this and arrive at the same answer. I showed my teacher the following day and she was amazed at how much he had simplified it, a man that never took calculus and had not been to school in over 20 years showing a math teacher of several years how to do her job. It just shows that some teachers simply treat teaching as a job and do little to further there knowledge once they have aquired the position.

I feel we are limiting our children by allowing sub par teachers into our schools. If I had children I would want them to be taught by the best and not by someone that really has no clue as to what they are teaching.