Similar happened in the USA during the Last Century. The majority of smart teachers took their degrees and went into other feilds, now we have pretty much the stupid people who stick with the position because they don't have sufficient braincells to bail out. Meaning the stupid are teaching, thus the quality of education in public schools has declined.
And I know all of that only because my boss loves to explain how when he taught high school students for 35 years where things where when he entered the scene and where things ended up being when he retired gladly and flat refuses to deal with another damned school ever again. He also said that most of the new teachers he has met are about as educated as a well trained chimpanzee, however he feels chimpanzees would just to a better job at it.
This woman you just talked about is most likely and example how the refusal of government to actually pay for quality educators is leading to a situation where unqualified individuals will take the job then proceed to mess up your nations greatest resource, its future minds.
I hate to say this but you may be facing a choice here which is ugly, either you stick with this and suffer in silence hoping you can reach at least one student and change the world for the better that way, or you bail on being a public educator and do something with your degree(s) that either make you richer, or make you happier.
Now for some woo-woo conspiracy theorizing. The Failing Education System is doing exactly as it is supposed to be doing. Americans are being '
dumbed-down'.
1940's through the 1960's the US public education system became a model of education for the rest of the world. This was back in the day when the USA was actually number one in many areas. A whole generation was raised to be brillant, and that lead to that minor thing we here in the states call the 'Civil Rights Movement'. All of those protests, marches riots learned the politicians and the Authority a good lesson. That being a well educated population is harder to control than a stupid population.
From the Civil Rights Movement onward, there has been a general "dumbing down" of the education system in the USA. Of course the government didn't just up and change everything, instead they held back funding, and did a lot of minor changes to slowly reduce the quality of education to where today high school students in America are woefully behind in every area compared to most of the world.
And it has worked, since the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War Protests, protests, marches, and all of those other wonder voicings of We the People had diminished in size and loudness. We the people should have been very pissed off to find out that bush went to war with Iraq based on 'sexed up' Intel from the Brits. Where was all the protests, the march on to Washington DC? What happened? The population is stupider now, they don't care.
Like it or not, the USA is the leader in innovation, has been since at least WWII. And from others I have spoken too in various fields in other nations they have been following exactly in the foot steps of America when it comes to education. Doing EXACTLY the same things to dismantle their education system, gut it and leave it in a condition where what is churned out is far less likely to question authority, have wild individual thoughts, and be a 'problem' to the government.
I do not know Portugal socially.
Unlike 60% of Americans I can find it on the map, its in Asia right? :biggrin: LOL However you may need to actually step back here and look at the bigger picture of Education in your Nation and decide for yourself if this is a purposeful 'dumbing down' move on part of your government.
If it is, forget trying to change this trend, you are one, they are many. However you can re-plan your life to where you personally don't have to deal with the decades of struggle to be a 'good educator' in a poor education system.