[douglasputnam]

I hear lots of smart people arguing that education can be improved by fired low performing teachers, breaking unions, enforcing discipline, raising test scores, etc. What I don't hear is lots of smart people saying, "Hey. I'm smart. I care about education. I think I'll become a teacher."

Not a single critic of education has come forward to say, I want to help by becoming a really great teacher.

[philwelch]

You can't fix a broken system by becoming part of the system. Many critics of public education have set up their own systems, of course--the whole charter school, Montessori, and homeschooling movements for example--but right now the best bet is to rescue children from the public school system and put them into something better.

Even if you can fix the public school system, becoming a teacher is not the way to do it.