... union organizing.

Good luck.

This isn't some conspiracy. Bad teachers are either unaware that they are bad (and are, therefore, no more or less involved in union activities than a typical teacher and certainly not due to the fact they are bad) or try to make up for their deficiencies through training.

In my experience, people who like their job and are good at it spend their time doing it; other people are the ones running around doing other things.

Bad teachers spend their time doing NOTHING!! They don't engage their students, convey their knowledge of the subject matter, or take interest in the students in general. I've seen teachers sit at their computers and email their buddies all day and give the kids "busy work" to do or show movies just to pass the time. It's a sad situation....

But on the flip side, bad teachers are rare. For the most part, the teachers I work with work hard every day to keep the students engaged in the learning process. They are enthusiastic about their subject matter, and let it show....and the enthusiasm becomes contagious. If they are able to show their students how their subject relates to real-world experiences, all the better!

Bad teachers are less prevalent in the schools I work in due to better structured probationary years before the teacher earns tenure. Administrators are becoming more assertive in demanding the best from their staffs...and getting rid of the dead weight before it becomes a permanent burden on the school district.

BenK:

In my experience, people who like their job and are good at it spend their time doing it; other people are the ones running around doing other things.

Exactly. But I think there are far too many teachers who don't really like being a teacher but have been for 30 years because when they were in college it seemed like a pretty easy job choice with summers off (this is how I viewed almost all of my high school teachers). Teaching is a really interesting profession because you've got incredibly educated people from the best universities in the country who could have done other things but are dedicated to teaching all through the spectrum to people who skipped all their classes at the local college picked teaching out of a hat. I realize this happens in many professions, but it seems especially exaggerated in education. I think it's because of the pay and benefits, really.