> " also got the impression that teachers tend to live in their own little world and tend to have very little experience outside of the educational system" How

> " also got the impression that teachers tend to live in their own little world and tend to have very little experience outside of the educational system" How on earth did you come to that conclusion?! Maybe your experiences have shifted it that way, but my teachers, my friends that are teachers, and my kids teachers certainly do not give that impression at all. > "Why is it not the norm to go into a job for, say 20 years, and after years of experience start teaching? Why would it be a good idea to have a teacher straight of college teaching kids just a couple of years younger?" Because they know the subject matter? I'm not really sure what you are getting at, so jobs should only be for those that know how to do something already - or only if you need to teach it? Not sure there are jobs that would help a primary school teacher - they cover all the subjects - so multiple jobs over 20 years to satisfy that? How about a history teacher - should they be an archaeologist first? Or a Biology teacher, probably get that stem cell research in before teaching about the plant reproductive lifecycle. It's seems to be hard enough to attract people that actually want to be paid peanuts to teach the next generation how to do things.