I meant to make clear my respect for talented teachers of all ranks. Sorry if that didn't come through. Unfortunately passing the grade to become a teacher does not require being a talented one. I know many people who flunked out of other fields and went into teaching because it was "easy". The easy part is passing the classes not doing the job well. For the record nobody I know of flunked out of another field and then chose to become a chemical engineer.

In addition Tom's post was aimed at college professors. I feel the ranks of college professors have a far lower percentage of those motivated primarily by the desire to teach than in public education through 12th grade. There are all kinds of stories about the focus on research in universities devaluing the teaching function. The top tier of researchers are groundbreakers and of immense importance to society. Many others pursue research that seems to be plug and chug feeding at the government pork trough that I honestly don't think could handle the pressures and demands of working in industry.

So yes Mary Anne, I do feel there is some truth to the addage those who can do, those that can't teach, but I did not bring it up intending to slam all teachers. In this case I was referring to the portion lacking in pragmatic skills.

By the way, my wife is a speech teacher who loves making breakthroughs which she does often due to the talent that made her the top student in her grad school class and my eldest daughter plans to be an elementary school teacher despite having the grades to pursue whatever field she wants. Both are examples of the kind of people that should be teachers.

Regards,
Mark