Are grade school teachers effective or people who can't find something better to do?

I'll kick this off by saying that my daughter's (public school) teacher is amazing. I'm not sure what @venturehacks has seen, but I can't imagine putting in that kind of effort for such a modest financial reward.

I gotta agree with you Jon. I've never heard someone say, "I want to be a teacher for the financial fortunes that await me!"

This is a tough one. There are great, inspiring teachers, but I also remember the really bad ones who seemed to hate their jobs and were just skating by until retirement. Waiting for Superman highlights how broken our public education is, and bad teachers are a part of the problem. In the end though I don't feel there's a clear-cut answer since so many teachers are great but many aren't.

I believe most teachers are sacrificing a lot to teach in the public school system. I think it's the system that's broken.

I agree with ashbuckles. There are a lot of teachers that do teach what they need to, but there are many more that only "teach the test". And by test I mean those National Standardized Tests. Those tests are the worst thing that any child can be forced to go through. I have seen extremely intelligent children fail those tests because the test itself is given so much hype in the schools. If you want to give children the leg up in the system, fire all teachers that "teach the test" and replace them with ones that will teach them things that they should know. and then pay teachers more... I recently read an article that said that children from this generation(the ones graduating now) are the "dumbest" generation because they did not learn more than their parents. I grew up with teachers that were intelligent and some that only taught you what you HAD to know for the test. And I remember the amount of pressure they placed upon us because they wanted the higher scores...

It's hard. I've done some teaching and it's a real mixed-bag of problems. The system is fundamentally broken, but there are plenty of rotten teachers in it as well. It's a case where the very root of our idea of education needs to be examined and questioned. Top-down reform ain't going to strike the root.

I know too many teachers to count, some of which I'd be happy to have teach my son, others not so much. I think the biggest attraction to the profession would be the schedule...summers and weekends off, holidays, snow days. Next would be the teacher's lounge.

what the fuck is grade school