Question about teachers in my schools - the 70s.

educAtion - I guess I was a hopeless student.

My 6th grade home ec teacher was a young-ish woman (28-30) who dressed in a very strangely modest way and used to tell us constantly that her favorite singer was Bj Thomas (raindrops keep falling on my head). This was in 1982 in CT. She was a fundie of some sort I presume. We also didn’t learn how to do anything except open a can of refrigerated biscuit dough. I doubt a degree was necessary

Home Ec teachers had a BA degree in Home Economics.

In my area, driving instructors were brought in from a driving school.

A lot of these positions have been eliminated in most high schools to the detriment of students.

R4 well that's what why I was thinking about it. School used to be a pretty good deal for kids. Tax payer money well spent. I think it was in 3rd or 4th grade or 5th grade everyone had to start learning how to play an instrument. EVERYONE. And my school wasn't so rich and I remember the music teachers were good dudes and really had to hustle to get instruments for every kid. And he and the singing music teacher taught every kid who bothered to pay attention, to read music.

Of all the courses I took in high school, learning to type was the most useful.

I still think my gym teachers of that era were all psychos who were released from Veterans Administration hospitals.

All of the above. We had a wood shop teacher and a metal shop teacher.

The two drivers Ed teachers were also the gym teachers.

We also had a business teacher - basic accounting, I guess. Never took a class in the business department other than keyboarding.

But would wood shop and metal shop teachers have gone to teachers colleges?

In the 70s, there still would have been some old timers who had 2 year degrees from "Normal Schools". The driving teacher came from the driving school that had the contract (the same family owned a bar that famously gave folky Phil Ochs his start). Only one of the gym teachers seem to be a loon---he also taught geography. His son somehow made it to Yale.

It’s a good question, and I’d say yes to some sort of degree. You’d have to have at least a bachelors to teach if not a masters in Industrial Arts, not education I think.

In most places, you would have needed a master's to get tenure, but if you taught some hard to fill subject like math, you could do ok without one.

Gym teachers all seemed to be very damaged Vietnam veterans who used the GI Bill to get degrees in education and certification to teach Phys Ed and Driver's Ed. Few of them could even teach Health.

we had one fat butch lesbian gym teacher out of central casting. The male gym teachers were a mixed bag but two of them were kind of brilliant and sexy and very kind and encouraging to me, a little flamer nevertheless interested in playing sports. They kept me at it from 11 on and I played varsity and in college too. One gym teacher hated faggot kids but the two others pushed the couple of us and were completely (obviously) neutral about neutral and kept a lid on any bullying. It wasn't until I was a junior and on varsity and more frankly aware I was a fruit, that I started to appreciate their skill and progressiveness, which nobody asked for and probably got them pushback in the 70s.