Reply #19: Absolutely ...

[RoyGBiv]

I do not intend anything I wrote to be a general indictment of teachers or teaching, rather of the system in which those teachers are forced to work. I come from a long line of teachers. I knew excellent teachers both in my family and outside of it. My daughter's mother is a teacher.

Another respondent said it well. The problem here is that we've decided to make teaching a low-paid profession. Some people who love it and are fully competent do it anyway, but there are vast holes that end up being filled by less than competent people.