The first point applies more to primary than secondary school teachers - there was always a significant block of male high school teachers (especially the higher prestige subjects like Classics and Math). But it's definitely valid as far as it goes, and it lasted for a long time. My mother in retrospect would have chosen to go into science rather than becoming a teacher if she hadn't been steered in that direction.
On the second point, I think it's true, but I also think the people with that view don't admit it to themselves. They think of themselves as upholding "values" like drill even though they are actually channelling Dickens' Gradgrind. In fact, they've been messing about with the curriculum for a couple of decades - the Liberals aren't much different from the Conservatives, except when it comes to Sex Ed., which the Conservatives see as a bone to throw to their social conservative supporters. The business wing of the parties want to see better-trained graduates but there's no other appetite for any significant change. (Most obvious change recently has been changes that have been forced by the courts to accommodate special needs and non-neurotypical students.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-01-04 02:14 am (UTC)On the second point, I think it's true, but I also think the people with that view don't admit it to themselves. They think of themselves as upholding "values" like drill even though they are actually channelling Dickens' Gradgrind. In fact, they've been messing about with the curriculum for a couple of decades - the Liberals aren't much different from the Conservatives, except when it comes to Sex Ed., which the Conservatives see as a bone to throw to their social conservative supporters. The business wing of the parties want to see better-trained graduates but there's no other appetite for any significant change. (Most obvious change recently has been changes that have been forced by the courts to accommodate special needs and non-neurotypical students.)