What I was trying to say was that they should have more than a high school education and that they should understand math several levels above what they're teaching. Algebra 1 and geometry would be reasonable, given that the elementary curriculum draws on both subjects. But IMO, they should know these subjects WELL, and they should also understand the foundations of what they're teaching. It's not rocket science, and I agree that this is where their own educations are playing a role in the problem. Somehow, we have to break the cycle.
I think we've found common ground, then, and the question is, how do we break the cycle?
1) If a contributing factor is teacher quality, then we need to improve the educational culture such that better-quality candidates are attracted to the job.
2) If a contributing factor is general math understanding, then we need an overhaul of how we teach math to everyone.
3) If a contributing factor is curriculum, then we need to get academia engaged in sorting out the bad ideas from the good, and pushing the good ones into the classrooms.
I don't see any of those things being fixed anytime soon, due to politics, money, and general inertia.
Bostonian has said that our schools should hire math specialists to teach math. I agree.
The more I've been watching what happens to my DD at school, the more I've been convinced that she should have a math teacher, an English teacher, a social studies teacher, etc. Why do we wait until 6-7th grade for this?
If done, it would mean we'd only need about 20% of elementary school teachers to really understand math. That should be workable with the current talent pool.
I think a person who wants to be called a professional should be able to 1) recognize that not understanding a subject at the level being taught (e.g. MoN's post) is not okay, and 2) take steps to learn the material (e.g. Khan Academy, Math Is Fun, Summer Workshops). Again, it's not rocket science.
Maybe I'm just exposing my jaded worldview here, but in my mind "professional" just means "gets paid." Whether the person is any good at it is a whole other issue.
