[WS:] What is "adequate knowledge" and who defines it? I always thought that the main goal of pedagogy is to teach how to find needed information rather than transmission of memorized stuff. I can think of someone not knowing the latest theories and yet effectively teaching how to do social science research. It seems that the concerns over "inadequate knowledge" is yet another form of public school teacher bashing.
When I was in HS, a common game played by students was proving the teacher wrong. It was not very difficult indeed. All it took was spending some time in the library and reading a book that was not on the curriculum. Obviously, different teachers reacted differently to the challenge - but the whole thing served a pedagogical purpose, as the students learned how to find information on their own.
Here, in the US, teacher bashing has a decidedly different flavour. It is not about proving teacher wrong but mere contumacy and defiance - the "I do not have to do this shit" attitude. It does not teach anything, it merely reaffirms the self-perceived identity of the student. It is anti-pedagogical.
Teacher bashing is the US national sport that unites people of all political persuasions - this is why NCLB received support from liberals and conservatives alike. I hear the same stories about "suffering" inflicted on students by public school teachers from both, raging right wingers and lefties, including this list. For the right wingers, it is understandable - they do not like the idea of educating the rabble, they do not like unions, they do not like public services - so the public school teacher bashing is a natural extension of their political position. But for the lefties (with few exceptions, such as Carroll on this list, to be sure) - it is mind boggling. Does not their political position entail support for educating the masses, unions and public services? So why bashing public school teachers? I have a few conjectures why this is the case - gutter populism and following a popular cultural trope, scapegoating safe and politically correct targets, delusions about the root causes of social inequality - but this is the subject of another conversation.
At this point the only internally consistent "left" position on the subject is that teachers are no different than any other group of workers - a few are good, a few are bad, most are in the middle. Expecting them all to be "above average" is sheer lunacy. If one wants to improve the quality of education for the masses, one needs to (i) give the maximum support to people who teach, (ii) strengthen public schools as these are the only institutions capable to serve everyone, not just those who can pay, and (iii) remove social barriers to learning.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."