Just 2 more days before this poll is closed. We only have 4 votes. That's a pretty small sample.

I must say, I'm surprised school teachers rated as highly as they did, considering who has responded to the poll so far. Given I had several very good teachers in my school career and none that were horror stories, I shouldn't be terribly prejudiced against them. I wonder why my opinion of school teachers is lower than others who have the same information about them as I do (e.g., ref., ref., ref.).

I know several teachers. As much as I may wish to use my friendship with them as justification for a higher opinion, I just can't in good conscience. I see them not only actively participating in a failed system but purposely contributing to its failure. I mean, I regularly observe them--firsthand!--demonstrating their incompetence and designs on avoiding real teaching and responsibility, even while they try to project an unwarranted air of superiority. (I guess they drank the Kool-Aid.) Of these I observe, they are almost all "good" people, Christians, ordinarily showing wholesome values, etc. If these are the good guys, I would hate to think of what's normal for teachers.

More than likely, it simply may be that these others think less poorly of school teachers simply because they're kinder than I am. That's not difficult, mind you. Or maybe they're leaving room for their opinions to drop further as teachers get increasingly worse. (My opinion really can't get much lower, no matter how much worse teachers get.) Or maybe they know a few teachers who aren't so bad, and they're letting these welcome aberrations skew their overall opinions. Of course, since these are just opinions, such "skewing" is, of course, acceptable. I'm just trying to account for the differences in opinion, given what would seem to be similar information.

No matter the reason for the differences of opinion, it's pretty clear, even with just four votes, that opinions of school teachers are not very high. With classrooms being among the least efficient methods of education, I suppose it just doesn't take much to be a teacher (also evidenced by their low SAT scores and IQs), and today's school systems continue to lower that bar.