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I have been there and done that, with student populations that were not "easy". I have taught in an academic intervention program for4th graders who were identified as being "at risk" for future drug use and dropping out. I have taught pre-teens and teens at runaway shelters, where the "class" composition was constantly changing, so every student needed (and got) in-class differentiation. I have taught in Adult Basic Education and GED prep programs. I have taught in Family Literacy programs where parents were learning to read and do math along with their children. I have taught homeschool co-op classes where the students spanned a wide range of ages and ability levels. I know exactly what I am asking for. I've done it. It is hard. It is also possible, if you have people who know their stuff. There are highly knowledgeable, committed, competent teachers out there. That should be the professional standard, and unfortunately, it's not, and that's tragic, not just for the children who are being cheated out of a decent education, but for the good teachers who end up tarred with the same brush as their incompetent colleagues.

I agree. There's a competence problem, and working hard won't always make it go away.

Well, it's a fair question. Actually, I'm not sure that all of DD's teachers can actually read and write at a true 12th grade level. But I suppose the answer is that occasionally, in the course of reading and writing even at the third grade level, you may run into a much more advanced concept, word, or skill, and you'd like the teacher to be able to explain it. I see how the same could possibly hold for math--and yet, realistically, a child is much more likely to run into the word "phenomenon" or to ask about how to use a colon than he or she is to ask how to graph a function. Or so it seems to me, with the very real exception of kids like ours.

I realize that I am coming at this with the prejudices of someone who is no longer all that functional in high school math. (I can certainly do basic algebra and geometry and all the other basic stuff of math that one uses in daily living, and I've picked up some basic stats, but ask me to write a complex proof or do trig? Forget it. I'm high average at math, at best. I never took calculus, and I worked hard to get a B+ in trig.) I'm perfectly comfortable helping my second grader with her homework, but she does ask theoretical math questions that stump me a bit at times--however, she shows signs of being gifted in math.

I am positive my son's 3rd grade teacher did not read or write at a high school level. He did receive his "Writing Journel" back at the end of the year with a multitude of correction marks. Most of them, including the cover spelling, were in her handwriting. Most of them were incorrect. His kindergarten teacher insisted that all words in English must have a vowel and that a e i o and u are the only vowels. When he asked how "try" is a word them, she got angry instead of getting curious. He explained that y and w are "sometimes-vowels" (his term). She chose to yell at him for asking questions too hard for his classmates, rather than saying "You're right!"

Sadly, I've come to discover that there are many elementary teachers who are there because they can't teach anything else, not because they truly want to be there. Looking at a teacher's credential can tell you a lot about him/her. Does she have extra authorizations? A Masters in her field of study (not education)? University level continuing education courses?

I actually don't mind that elementary teachers aren't capable of high school and college level work. I do care that they believe they are capable and insist that they are correct. I know I don't have a Ph.D in theoretical physics so I wouldn't even begin to answer a question, let alone argue it. Yet my son has encountered a few teachers who would argue back, dig in so hard and straight out refuse to admit mistakes.