[Dan Evans]

Re dimwit teachers:

“The federal government’s own National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that college education majors have the lowest Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of any undergraduate major. And the results of the standardized entry exam for students seeking post-graduate degrees reveals that education majors have the second-lowest scores of all majors. And if an education major decides to enter law, the LSAT (the Law School Admission Test) shows that education majors rank at the bottom – 26th out of 29 majors. This is not to suggest that all teachers lack basic academic knowledge; but the fact is undeniable that their profession ranks as one of the lowest in academic competency.”

http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=159

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Should a person aspiring to teach third graders be as academically gifted or driven as a person aspiring to design spacecraft for NASA? Of course not, and about the only thing the SAT attempts to predict is how well someone might do in his or her freshman year in college; beyond that it is useless, especially as an indicator of knowledge or academic ability. Some people don't find their academic groove until after their freshman year in college. I knew plenty of people who scored a near-perfect 1600 (then) on their SATs, but couldn't make a rack properly or shine their shoes or march in step with the others on the grinder.

A dimwit is someone who continually makes the same dense mistake; a dimwit doesn't value knowledge to the extent he does not pursue it. That hardly describes a majority of public school teachers.