Buzzbomb, you are right, but it isn't just the UGa school of education, it's schools of education in general, I think, which present a big problem for actually teaching kids stuff. There is a deeply entrenched academic bureaucracy in education as in every other discipline-all sorts of turf battles, etc. But in education, this is complicated by government bureaucracy, particularly at the state level, which requires "certification" in a given area for someone to teach in that area.
This is fine, up to a point. That point is the one at which education is regarded as an actual science. It's barely a pseudo-science like sociology. Being a good teacher requires some knowledge of what you're teaching, some kind of ability to relate to (non-adult) students, and some je ne sais quoi, which, whatever it is, cannot be titrated.
But schools of education insist that it can be titrated, so does the state, and so do school boards (they have no choice but to play along.) This basic institutional failure to smell the coffee, combined with a local mindset which in many cases regards teachers as mill hands, combined with poor salaries, poor facilities, and poor parental behavior makes the success of public education, such as it is,nearly miraculous.
By contrast, the basic question asked of a college teacher is, does he know his stuff, and have institutions awarded him degrees showing that he does.
Remember, though, that there is not only a difference between your daughter's high school and its faculty over against a college faculty; there is also a big difference between being a h.s. senior and a college freshman.
At any rate, I wouldn't single out UGa's education school; it's a deeper problem. As for Georgia's public education system lagging, welcome to historical circumstances is my basic theory. (As a matter of fact, the school of education requires MORE courses in one's teaching field-Latin, in my case- than the classics dept. requires for a degree.)
Pardon the rant!
