Saw "Waiting for Superman" the other day in Sociology class.

[Sterling]

14. I sure had a mixed bag of teachers

My school which now seems to be an excuse for a giant athletic program had a pretty extreme spectrum of quality of teachers. There were some that I am very grateful for and influenced my thinking to this day. My creative writing teacher in particular helped me get several scholarship offers from in state schools by getting my work published. Up to that point I had not even thought of collage because I knew that at the time it would have been a hardship on my parents to pay for it.

Then there were the teachers who just did not seem to have their heads in the game or just had a hard time relating the information in a way that was clear. Bottom line for me is that in general we don't value teachers enough in our culture. These are the people who have a huge influence on what tomorrows citizens and leaders will be like. If we expect to attract high quality professionals in that field we need to be realistic about the fact that cost money.

As I posted earlier the guy in charge of the school in the movie makes $400k per year. You are going to attract top people if you can fork over that kind of cash, period. The trend I have seen lately to vilify teachers, suggest they are over paid is disgraceful IMHO.