[The Great RJ]

The public schools have a racket with "teacher certification". I have been a college professor for 9 years and am working on a doctorate yet I am "not qualified" to teach in a public school because I am not certified. To get certification I would need to take close to two years of college classes in education taught by people who haven't been in a classroom for 20 years and who are technologically illiterate to to computer the teaching technologies I use every day.

I know a student who was majoring in chemistry and wanted to teach chemistry in high school. Despite having taken rigorous chemistry, math and physics classes for her chemistry major she was still required to take a bonehead science class for teachers in order to get her teaching degree. Sadly a student who only took this bonehead science class would be fully qualified to teach high school chemistry in many states.

No wonder our students do so poorly.

[jazusamo]

Sounds like a very good example of the elitism that exists in education.

[Sgt_Schultze]

This man (were he still alive) would not be "qualified" to teach high school science, let alone physics...

[TXnMA]

The public schools have a racket with "teacher certification".

Absolutely correct. Our daughter recently finished a BS in education. When she used my computer to do her "teacher certification" application, I was appalled at the seemingly endless list of "fees" (hundreds of $$) that she was required to pay. The whole NEA-strangled "education 'profession'" is a total ripoff!