old college math professor wrote:
In some respects teaching is harder than doctoring. The average work day of a teacher is busier than the average workday of a doctor. Also, if a doctor sends a patient home with directions to not smoke, and to cut out the saturated fats, no one holds the doctor accountable when the fat slob drops dead of a hear attack.
Med school is both harder to get into and harder to graduate from than education school. But, becoming a teacher at the top of one's game does require years of education, and years of practice, just as doctoring or any profession does.
Unfortunately the public equates teaching with the poor slob that sits in front of a computer while Mavis Beacon does all of the work. The public doesn't see the physics teacher that, year after year, turns out successful engineers and scientists.
Yes, absolutely.