The statistics speak for themselves, but his reasoning is totally out of touch with reality. Math teachers in Canada don't make any more than teachers in the US (less probably.) But Canada is ranked towards the top. Why? No one places the blame on the most obvious culprit - the teaching methods. What you're seeing here is the legacy of progressive education which placed more emphasis on "socializing" students than on actually teaching them. This is the cult of self-esteem, where the goal of making the student feel good about himself trumps things like standards and discipline.
The statistics speak for themselves, but his reasoning is totally out of touch with reality. Math teachers in Canada don't make any more than teachers in the US (less probably.) But Canada is ranked towards the top. Why? No one places the blame on the most obvious culprit - the teaching methods. What you're seeing here is the legacy of progressive education which placed more emphasis on "socializing" students than on actually teaching them. This is the cult of self-esteem, where the goal of making the student feel good about himself trumps things like standards and discipline.