Why Johnny Can't Do Algebra

I am a teacher who has been teaching in the private sector, being very UNDER-paid, for the very reason you state as being the reason our U.S. public school system is failing our children, teachers unions. I would rather be paid less and be able to actually teach my students, than be a part of a union. I see them as you do, self-preservationists at any cost, especially the students. Don't get me wrong, there are many well qualified, dedicated and over-worked, under-paid public school teachers out there. They are ones that don't spend all their time trying to pass school levies, but are actually in the classroom trying to inspire and motivate students. I agree that teachers need to be held accountable for knowing their subject, but it is a fine line between knowing the subject and actually being able to teach it to another; and I have found math and science teachers/professors are the worst for that. They know their stuff, they just can't explain it clearly enough for others to learn it. Teaching is a gift, not just a profession of knowing a subject. Einstein knew his subject and could converse within his scientific circles with ease, however, from all I've read about him, he probably would have made horrible math or physics teacher in high school because he couldn't break down the concepts into digestable pieces. I will help you continue to fight for better teachers and less self-centered unions if you will help to find ways to bring the private sector into a more of our classrooms to inspire our students and assure teachers they can teach and be paid fairly without the unions.

I came across this discussion while browsing around the web for methods to help my students learn basic pre-algebra skills. I'm a high school science teacher, though...so why in the world would I be interested in doing a math teacher's job?
Physics requires a good understanding of math skills, and my students have absolutely none. I know each school is different, but I place most of the blame on the math teachers at my school. Out of the 7 math teachers, 4 of them are coaches who could not care less about teaching (these people sit in class on their cell phones or aren't in the classroom at all). That leaves three competent math teachers.
I have twelfth graders in class who do not understand what a variable is, cannot rearrange a simple 3-variable formula, and cannot understand word problems. Its endlessly frustrating.
Again, each school is different, but at my school the teachers are the problem. Will anything be done? Not likely.

While I am not one to blame teachers entirely for this state of affairs, I will blame any teacher who goes along with the edu-canard that you cannot teach children by rote. The same children who cannot do basic arithmetic cannot spell or compose a sentence, and later in life cannot perform more complicated math or language operations. My girlfriend's cousin in 2002 did math I had in 4th grade, only he was in seventh.
Their brains are taught smooth.

I was very lucky to have several good math teachers in my elementary and HS years. Starting with a great teacher in 6'th grade who had the class draw a circle with the points of an equalateral triangle touching the circle only using a compass, straight edge and pencil. Not a lot of us did it, but we sure had fun with geometry, and he sparked an interest that continued all through college for me. A couple of my HS Math teachers gave us tricks that I still use to this day, and I have passed these tricks on to my kids. They all have stuggled much less with math than a lot of their classmates, is this genetic or just a result of a parent that cares and is involved with their childrens education, I beleive if more parents were involved with their kids education, that test scores would be higher. I'm also very glad that I had some great teachers!