Attracting the "best and the brightest" is an age-old adage that has NEVER been true for the teaching profession. I am a teacher and a lot of our younger ones are not prepared for this vocation. They don't have a command of the English language, they are ignorant of their particular area and they don't set a good example for their students in or out of school.
With the advent of "teaching to the test", or "teaching THE test", our teachers are simply trying to keep their jobs. The "scores" are the THING, not the students' welfare or advancement . If a teacher's students' scores don't increase every year, his/her job may be in jeopardy. It's the most insane thing ever! Students are tested only in specific grades and never while they have the same teacher, so what are the scores supposed to be measured against? They ARE MEASURED AGAINST OTHER STUDENTS' SCORES THE YEAR BEFORE. How are students supposed to improve their scores when they are never tested again on those specific subjects? Yet, teachers lose their jobs and schools lose money because their scores don't improve. If you want to see where our education system stands, watch JAY WALKING on the Tonight Show. Our kids cannot find the US on a world map and neither can their parents. All of this is due to the GREAT REFORM of the early nineties. Since that time, our children have become more and more illiterate. I teach high school and my students don't know the four directions on a simple map....I had them stand up with their arms outstretched to point to east, west and then nod their head forward for north etc. They had no clue, even though the sun was just coming up outside our classroom window at 8:00 A.M. I reiterated...the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Most of them looked puzzled. When one of my seniors said that he wanted a Volkswagen Van for his birthday so that he and some of his friends could DRIVE to Africa,(we live in Nebraska) NO ONE LAUGHED EXCEPT ME. We are in big trouble, people! Big Trouble!!!!!!!!