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Sometimes I go onto /r/teachers to see what the communists are doing and what their plans are for the next generation.
There was an interesting discussion where a parent wrote to the subreddit asking if they were in left field for finding something odd. This was set in Sweden but the conversation in the sub revealed a consistent theme. The math teacher was required to teach alternate counting methods. Like just make sure the kids had at least one exposure to the concept. But she didn't know what that is. No clue what binary or octal or hexadecimal are.
So this parent tried to explain it to her, trying to explain the logic of how 6x6=44 in octal. She couldn't get it at all. Math teacher.
Every teacher in this thread said that was a weird expectation to put on a math teacher to know that. One said that he was a 9th grade math teacher in the UK with first degree honors in math himself. I have no clue what those britbong terms mean but I'm guessing it means he actually got a math education besides a teaching one, apparently. And he said he would have no clue what that is if it wasn't for a book he read once for his pleasure.
It is quite literally early highschool level number theory. Hence why they are teaching it.
Another math teacher said that when they got their degree (in teaching math) the extra bit of math they got didn't cover that so the parent is in left field.
So really the only education these teachers have is their own k-12 education plus some methodology classes on how to teach the same material back?
Part of my question is this. If they spend all of this time studying teaching methodology instead of the subjects they are going to teach, are they actually good at it? Has the study of pedagogy been generally a mis-investment? Or do you think this training has at least made them good at the teaching part?
Is there a hidden black pill in realizing the people teaching your kids have a high school education themselves?
I've always had this intuition that teaching degrees are BS. I think you nail it regarding why. They're geared toward people for whom other subjects are too difficult. They don't know shit but they can at least pretend to know stuff. I learnt octo- and hexadecimal as a kid from the calculator program in micro$haft wangblows.
This isn't the cleanest way to view the data but I'm seeing a lot inconsistent correlation between how much teachers are paid and the outcomes. In theory higher paying areas would attract teachers who measure really well in all the ways teachers measure themselves. Maybe the industry's view of what is good and bad isn't aligned with anything useful.
Pretty much everything about teaching and education is overrated. It's a very big business, but, its utility is highly questionable.