[Fordrus]

There is substantial argument that our focus on standardized testing is literally ruining the advantages traditionally associated with a Western Education.

But then, perhaps I would be a "below-average" teacher, and my opinion might therefore similarly be discarded as worthless. We'll never know for certain, because I don't make a habit of boarding sinking ships - especially when I'm slated to receive blame for their sinking after boarding them. (And I did at one point very much want to enter the field of secondary school education.)

(Slight modification: I won't board a sinking ship and take blame for it's sinking after the fact without some substantial advantage, such as excellent remuneration, being offered as well - teaching offers no such advantage, except perhaps self-actualization, and I can neither eat nor sleep in that.)

[tinokid]

Sure, bad comparison. It's consistent to support standardized rating of doctors but not teachers. Teaching exists to enrich, whereas medicine properly understood only exists to solve problems.

(I find it curious that another poster takes the opposite tack, claiming that teaching exists only to maximize the financial success of students, whereas medicine has a more nuanced end. I confess to finding this position truly bizarre.)