teachers are honored and paid well. If I recall correctly, Hungary is one such. I believe I've read that streets are sometimes named after teachers.
What I do know from my own work experience -- and I've never been a teacher -- is that if employees are valued and treated well they will tend to stick around and do good work. In any job where the public is dealt with in some way, say in retail or restaurants or (dare I suggest this?) teaching, the employees being treated well will result in those same employees working hard and for the most part doing good work.
Let's just reflect for a moment on restaurant employees. I bet everyone reading this likes to eat out, at least occasionally. Now, if you only go out every other month or so, you will never notice this, but if you eat out regularly at the same restaurants, you will absolutely notice over time if you ever see the same servers at more than one visit. Too often you never see the same server more than once. Maybe twice. I do notice specific restaurants in my city where I actually see the same server more than once or twice, and it makes me feel much better about that restaurant.
And while teaching isn't a whole lot like restaurant work, the underlying thing of being treated well enough to stick around is the same. Over the years (and I'm now 68) I have often been somewhat amazed at how many people I know who got a teaching degree and either never taught at all, or only taught for a few years and then left the profession. How sad and revealing is that?
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