I think the teaching certification cluster is due to a few cultural dynamics: 1. There is an overall trend to more bureaucratization, and bureaucracies often

I think the teaching certification cluster is due to a few cultural dynamics: 1. There is an overall trend to more bureaucratization, and bureaucracies often evaluate their officers based on formal certification, especially when there is no structure to measure output. So I support wide spread standardized testing .... 2. The public educational system is designed to enculturate the entire population, including a big proportion of folks that are needed to provide working class labor and reproduction of more working class laborers. So if 80% of the country get a crappy education due to a certification system that rewards mediocrity and punishes excellence, then the system has succeeded. 3. Good education hurts. Not be Nietszchean (sp?) or anything, but most people are taught that fun and ease are the highest ideals in life -- how can you really teach if you, your administrators, the kids, and the parents all believe that you should maximize personal pleasure rather than maximize personal accomplishment? I apologize for the rant, but the unbelievably bad education in the US is probably the issue that most infuriates me.