Phyto, I'm not going point by point yet because I posted a very primitive idea, but I will say a few things:
My bad example teacher isn't representative as teachers as a whole, but IS representative of a particular subset of teachers, and I'm trying to use that example as part of a new way for kids to learn in public schools. That teacher could have been eliminated due to his performance.
Secondly, I have looked into teacher certifications only in Texas, and only for high school/community college, because that's where I want to end up, and only for math and/or physics. In this case, because the student body is older and more mature, more is expected from the student, so the teacher's minimum requirements can be lower as far as teaching abilities, but the knowledge requirements are much higher.
Thirdly, my complaint about teachers having to know "all this stuff that they never teach" is a bit more nuanced, but in absolutely no way can be simplified to "teachers should only have to know what they teach."
Now then, I've spent some more time thinking and have come up with a possible rudimentary outline for a school that implements these ideas.
First, the thing about the database is that whatever depth/breadth of knowledge is required for pretty much any subject (certainly any subject covered in public schools) is available on the internet in some form or other. There's wikipedia, which, for most subjects in public schools actually has better information than the district-approved textbooks. Then there are the proprietary places, university pages, scholarly journals, etc, all of which are available and are included under the simple word "database" for the purposes of this school.
Second, you can't just send kids to school with a list of requirements and expect them to pursue them. They still need guidance. But every kid is different, so our current system of sending kids to school to have a list of requirements forced onto them at every level of their education also isn't working so well.
Among kids, I have observed that when a kid is interested in subject, given a rich environment to pursue it, they will do so. If a kid is NOT interested in a subject, then it's like pulling teeth to get them to study it. It seems to me that our current system is setup for the kids who aren't interested in each subject, and the kids who are are forced to learn at a lesser level and depth than they would like.
Thirdly, one of the things about homeschooling that is cited as why it is so successful when it is successful is that the kids get to pursue subjects at their own pace.
So how do we put all this together in an organized, standards-oriented way?
I'm thinking that having, say, two exit tests altogether is the way to go. Maybe just one. Set a standard for what every kid needs to know to receive a high school diploma. Install a local complete database of some sort (obviously someone would have to sift through the information that's already out there and readily available and put this database together. We call those people "textbook companies", and they're already perfectly capable of doing so).
To achieve accreditation, and to make sure there are people who actually know something about teaching, the management of the school would be your certified teachers. But they wouldn't do much in the way of teaching directly. Or rather, their relationship to teaching would be the same as your burger-flipping manager's relation to flipping burgers: they're expected to do it as the need arises, but their core job is a supervision job.
To provide guidance on topics (essentially guidance to the database), a layer of professional tutors (such as myself) who don't have teaching certs but DO have proven ability to teach would be employed by the school.
Finally, to keep each student working towards graduating, setting goals, making plans, and so forth, the guidance counselor staff would be quite a bit higher than they are currently (you know, where you have TWO counselors, and one takes students up to letter L and the other takes the rest).
Now here's where it starts to get tricky, so watch out.
To provide additional guidance on topics, as part of graduating from THIS school, every single student will be expected to participate in the tutoring process for younger students.
Now, how would this all work together?
Teachers and tutors would form small groups similar to classes that would setup meeting times during school hours. This is where what we currently call classtime would happen. Students wouldn't be "required" to show up to anything in particular, but their guidance counselor will be keeping an eye on them and basically riding herd and making sure each student actually studies.
If a student doesn't like a particular tutor or teacher, they can find another one for the subject. The actual teachers will be checking homework assignments, quizzes, and tests to ensure they meet a certain minimum level of rigor, but those assignments would be designed, assigned, and graded by the tutors.
Now, don't get me wrong. ALL subjects that are REQUIRED to graduate will have such coursework associated with them. For many students, going to the database and doing the automated work will work for some subjects, but the actual subjects will vary by student. For example, I would have done government and economics that way because I have so very little interest in rigorously studying them, but I would show up to a group meeting to participate in the discussion because I have plenty of interest in that. YOU, on the other hand, may very well go to the group meeting and learn the material that way because you have a strong interest in that. Meanwhile, you only want the minimum requirements for math, so you can hit up an upper-class student tutor to get you through 3 credits of math that satisfies the graduation requirement.
Students will be motivated to learn the stuff they're really interested in because in this environment they can study it at their pace with the people they want to study. For stuff they're not interested in, they'll have a counselor riding herd making sure they're setting goals and achieving them and provided appropriate incentives for completion and appropriate disincentives for failures.
Like I say, I'm not saying remove the teacher from the system. I'm saying we can find a way to take advantage of the middle class of people, college students, upper-class students, BS/BA graduates looking for extra money, to set up a system where every student can learn at their own pace in a way that lets them become completely engaged with the material. I think we'll end up with a better basic education if we can address students' own interests.
Ok, so now it's a more mature idea, maybe we'll go point by point, or maybe it needs to cook some more.
"I agree with ya 100%" Come on.