Do you think this person right about education?

There are essentially two reasons given here: 1. Low salary (with not much increase available), from which it's hard to pay off the required education; and 2. Hard and relatively thankless job. These are both certainly true. However, another important aspect is that the teaching certification programs are a real pain in the *** to go through. Those programs ask quite a bit of their students, with coursework and *unpaid* student-teaching loads, and they give very little back. In my experience, these programs are aimed at those people who are utterly incapable of teaching. Anyone who has the least ability to teach already knows 90% of what those programs have to offer beyond hands-on teaching experience. Anyone who doesn't already know these things isn't going to magically conjure themselves some teaching ability during the course of these programs, and so these programs end up certifying teachers who aren't worth a grain of salt. This kind of nonsense is unappealing to most capable teachers, so they then move on to other professions with more appealing certification programs. As usual, those who can teach are very rarely the ones who end up doing it. As for No Child Left Behind---while this program does provide *some* useful funds for underperforming schools, the main thing it does is require huge quantities of benchmarks in schools. Students are tested so often that they spend a rather significant amount of time on testing and reviewing that would be far better spent *learning*. Federal and state benchmarks alone take up nearly 10% of classroom time. When you add in district benchmarks and the usual appropriate school testing, I'm sure most schools spend 15-20% of their students' time testing. How is that reasonable?

Right on all counts... though the author left out the stupid-as-hell No Child Left Behind Act.

The teachers in Ontario do fairly well for themselves, and they have one of the strongest teacher unions in North America. It's sad to see that educators suffer south of the border, though.

True, the main reasons listed have to do with payment and with the idea of it not being a very well respected profession. But when you think about it, those are pretty much the top reasons. Think about why we have more football and basketball players than you can count, and so few teachers. These people who abuse steroids, rape young women, participate in dog fighting, are more valued members of our society than any teachers. How sad is that? The public is always complaining about schools and how they are underfunded and not having the appropriate materials. But the problem is public funding comes from that, the public. So when they propose a raise in taxes to help gain funding for the schools, nobody will actually back up their own complaints with any action. People expect miracles without any work put into it. The money has to come from somewhere, it doesn't grow on trees. I still find it ridiculous that my own uncle has to be hasseled into voting for school bills by my mother because he doesn't think that he should have to pay any more, since he doesn't have kids. My own UNCLE! The parts mentioned about being under appreciated as workers is very true as well. People talk about teaching like it's this dream gig. Summers off and 2 week breaks at christmas! OOOHH! Sign me up! Failing to realize that most teachers do more work for the school outside of their contract hours than probably any other profession. Probably lawyers who are in their first years with their firms are the only ones who actually work as much as the teachers do day in and day out. I teach drama, and I'm constantly at school until late into the evening. I also agree with every statement made about the parenting. Especially how, when you find a good parent, you want to just hug them and thank them for doing right by their kids. It's sad to see kids who are abused by their parents, ignored by their parents, and allowed to do whatever they want because, god forbid, the parent set limits and have their child be angry at them for doing so. Teachers have to fill that role as parent moreso now than ever before! Far too many parents, and it gets more and more every day it seems, don't take the time to care about their kids education. Kids see themselves how their parents see them for a long time, so if their parent doesn't care about their schooling, why should they? Teachers are so invaluable to kids now because of the fact they no longer just teach their subjects, but because they have to pick up where so many parents are now failing and teach those kids about life also. Government is another huge issue. How many of those politicians have seen the inside of a public school? Not as many as went through private institutions. And they're the ones deciding how the ones in public school should be taught? It makes no sense, neither does the No Child Left Behind. Docking money from schools that don't meet their AYP? How are the inner city schools that need that money to buy fresh text books every going to get it if they keep getting their money docked? In the end it really does come down to money. Schools need to be funded better to buy the supplies and be able to pay for quality teachers. And those quality teachers need to be paid more and respected more because they are the ones making the difference in the world. They are the ones who should be respect and idolized. Next time you hear a kid say how they want to be like Michael Vick, or "Pacman" Jones, remember how they managed to "serve" society. By serving jail time. Serve your teachers better, because they serve your children more, and better than you can possibly imagine.

Education has gone to hell because the gov't has pushed schools and teachers into doing everything for students besides TEACH them.

One of the problems I've noticed in my 13 years is this need to change everything all the time. A kid who has been in my district from K-12 in that time has had 6 different reform programs(7 Superintendents). I think the craziest idea would be to use the system we have now and adjust it a little to make it better. Most teachers don't buy into these new programs because we know in two years we are just going to be throwing all this crap out.

"Schools are just a reflection of society". One of the more memorable quotes I remember when getting my Master's degree in K-12 Educational Administration (and no, I wasn't a "professional student", one who goes directly from a Batchelors straight to a Masters; I had 15 years experience as a teacher before I got my Master's Degree).