Teacher training is not just a UK issue

As an entrant to teaching I believed that teaching was the most important profession.  Whilst law and medicine might be said to correct our mistakes, teaching was helping to lay the foundation for healthy and well-balanced lives.  I can't say that twenty years of practice helped me to realise that potential; I was happy to leave.  It is interesting nonetheless to read that the same issues of qualification, training, support and consistency are evident in the US.  I write as an ex-English teacher, UK based.