I am absolutely convinced 1 does not need to waste 4 solid years doing "education" education when it can most assuredly be done at best as a minor in undergrad.
I did not have to take four years worth of education; I had to take a handful. I believe it was about 6 or 7 courses. The only one that was a complete and total waste was multi-cultural education. It could have been a good course because this is a big issue today. But the teachers chose to make it into a course that tried to force students to think and feel a certain way about cultural/ethnic issues. I resented it and complained about it. In my English curriculum, there were certain English courses that ed majors had to take and were options for the others. I knew some students who decided to drop out of education because of these more demanding courses. I think that's entirely appropriate and it weeds out unsuitable teachers.