Teacher recruitment: High-fliers in the classroom | The Economist

Teacher recruitment: High-fliers in the classroom | The Economist.

My comment:

I’m a former math professor and have seen how the corrupted American system of higher education has caused so much of high school education to be a sham. That’s right, higher ed dumbs down lower ed. Here is one important way.
For decades, unaccountable professors have used grant money (for example “national need” grants) to “produce” American PHD’s in fields like math. (I taught at an “elite” school where I saw this firsthand.) And do they “produce” them. I have seen PHD’s given to students who couldn’t even do challenging calculus problems. In many cases, these new “faux-PHD’s” go on to become “faux-professors” (at small regional schools) who teach earnest, but naïve, future teachers. Those students don’t have a chance to learn, nor do their future high school students have a chance.
If you don’t believe it, here is just one instance of what I have seen this system produce. (There is much more on my blog inside-higher-ed .)
A “professor” said that, after five years, he could finally tell when the homework was wrong, but still couldn’t always tell what was wrong with it. This was in a basic course.
Bottom line: We need to fix higher education. Then we will have enough “educated” high school teachers. Then we can worry about getting the few great ones. (By the way, don’t expect many of them to come from our present system where even “elite” schools just cater to students’ wants.)