Your college must have been very different than the university where I teach. My dim view comes from my experience teaching the air-headed ditzes in the one mathematics course they are required to take, and from my wife’s observations of the state of colleges of ed (she took a Ph.D. in School Psychology, and has seen close up the contentlessness of the Elem. Ed major and, to a lesser extent Secondary Ed majors of various flavors.)
I did go to a private Mennonite college. That could have something to do with it. Many of the classes I took that were for just the education part of my degree were very useful. I use many of the things I learned in class and apply them in my classroom today. Luckily we did a lot of observing other schools,(as a freshman you were placed in a classroom right away to enable us to decide if thats what we wanted to go into) teaching lessons to many different grade levels, and did student teaching. By the end of it all you knew if you were cut out to be a teacher or not. Of course I said many of the classes (not all. There was one that I really felt was worthless (at the time). I praise the college I attended. It was a liberal arts school and the education department followed a 5 C framework. They helped us become Christian, Committed, Competent ,Compassionate, and Collaborative teachers. It is an amazing school!
I agree that there is definitely something wrong with the public education system! That fact I will not deny. I was only trying to get the word out that not all teachers are air-heads.