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Some of this may not matter. You don’t need to be a genius to teach the 3rd grade, or high school mathematics. You DO need to be good at organizing, communicating and leading - skills not tested by the SAT.

My wife, born in the Philippines, is considering certification to teach elementary school. She spent 20 hour days working to become an RN in her second language (third, actually). She worked for awhile, but stopped and has been homeschooling our daughter. She loves teaching, and she is a genius at getting kids to do what she wants.

Would she ace the SAT? Not without a lot of studying. Would she make a great elementary teacher? Probably. If nothing else, she would be well prepared for any health problems that came up...

Teaching school is not rocket science, but it is something many rocket scientists couldn’t do.

Would she ace the SAT?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The reason teachers, as a group, have low SAT scores is not likely due to their being born and raised in the Philippines.

By the way, IQ and SAT score are correlated.

It is also a strawman argument to say that teachers do not need to be geniuses. Walter Williams, ( nor I ) have made that claim. How can Walter Williams defend an argument that his never made?

I am also willing to bet that there is a direct correlation between the ability to lead, organize, and communicate and one’s IQ. You failed to mention creativity and originality. I would add that these, as well, are directly correlated to IQ. ( My anecdotal experience only.)

Teaching school is not rocket science, but it is something many rocket scientists couldn’t do.

Actually, one of the results of the analysis of the TIMSS (and numerous other education-related studies I've read) is that a teacher is more effective if they have a deep and thorough understanding of the subject they are teaching. (Kinda of a no-brainer IMO, but the NEA and you don't seem to agree.) So, a rocket scientist would make a better physics teacher than someone who has taken just a few physics classes along with a bunch of education classes.

Another study (whose name I can't remember) correlated teacher effectiveness with having a masters in the subject they were teaching. Unfortunately, the vast majority of teachers have a masters degree in education, which might raise their salaries but not their abilities. About 90% of my credentialing classes were based on education, psychology, and liberal theory and had absolutely nothing to do with the areas I was going to teach in (math, chemistry, and physics). Therein lies the problem with our teacher training.

You don’t need to be a genius to teach the 3rd grade, or high school mathematics.

Inspite of what I said above, I do agree with this statement. But I think the best teachers are competent academically AND with organizational skills, etc. They can't teach what they don't know.