Fact-Man wrote:Part of the problem of teaching quality in public schools is the traditionally low pay those jobs offered, especially true in the USA, where teacher's wages remain low even today. So they end up getting slugs who can't make it in the private sector and end up teaching in public schools. I don't know if this is the case in Canada, though.
Canada has to be taken province by province because the curriculum and quality vary so widely. It's part of the problem with education here. The private system is also a lot less prevalent in Canada, so the situation is different as well. I don't think you can really nail down why they became teachers though. For example:
Out of the teachers I know here in Manitoba (excluding university profs):
Three set out to be teachers as a career. (2 high school, 1 primary) One of the high school teachers does a fair bit of adult literacy work.
One kind of drifted into it because he didn't know what else to do. (high school)
One had degrees in physics and astronomy and found himself selling electronic components. He went back and got his teaching certificate. (High school)
One is writer who teaches nothing but writing. (community college)
Two are photographers who started teaching to make ends meet. (one community college, one high school)
Of the teachers I know in Saskatchewan:
Two set out to do it as a career. (Primary)
One became a teacher for cultural reasons (started out primary, switched to high school, does a lot of adult literacy).
Three teach trades and all worked in the trades before becoming teachers. All became teachers because it's less physical than the trade, two because they were injured on he job.
Now I could run through lists for Ontario and Alberta too, but you get the idea...they all had very different reasons for becoming teachers. Some of them are good, some average, and some likely shouldn't be in a classroom at all. All have gone through periods of burn-out and most have been in a situation where they were teaching subjects they knew little about.
One thing I can say is that the public school teachers are generally better than the Catholic school teachers (Catholic school is a parallel public system in Ontario and Saskatchewan and there are government funded private Catholic schools in Manitoba), and that the college-level teachers are the most uneven of the bunch.
Also, I know an awful lot of teachers and didn't really realize it until now.
Fact Man wrote:This is true, although my setting was not continuing ed and my students were a broad mix of 1) older men and women who were upgrading their skills and knowledge and hence wanted to be there and wanted to learn; 2) foreign exchange students or students from Hong Kong and SE Asian countries; and 3) local high school grads who were either a) headed for university or b) just there for the girls and the social life.
Actually, that's pretty much what I mean by continuing ed and that's the name they give it here. It tends to be night and/or distance courses, but there are some day courses. Sometimes the classes are accredited and sometimes not. Sometimes they relate to a specific program and sometimes not. Sometimes they are industry-specific and sometimes not.
The reality is that there aren't very many facets of work that don't require skills upgrading now, and there seem to be a lot of us who just keep taking classes because we are interested.
(education impinges on many issues involving public understanding of situations...)
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