I read your post on higher academic standards, but what about higher 
standards for teachers. Here in Oklahoma you only have to have a degree and 
pass a test which is about on a fifth or sixth grade level. The are all too 
many colleges where you can earn a degree just by paying for it. The 
standards of a lot of colleges are lower also. This has resulted in teachers 
who are teaching subjects in elementary school in which they are not 
qualified. I have seen teachers misprouncing words such as oblique, telling 
students that caterpillars are insects because they have six legs, and 
stating that the red in a thermometer is red mercury. They teach Math by 
using a set method and reading it out of a book. There needs to be higher 
standards for teachers and students alike and unions need to quit blocking 
the removal of teachers who do not meet those standards. For all their 
rhetoric, the AFT still represents teachers regardless of their 
qualifications to teach. The AFT is worse than Bob Dole, because even though 
he may be wrong he is standing up for what he believe and not saying one 
thing and doing another. 
--- Maximus 2.02
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