“...so she needs her “piece of paper,” as I described a “worthless education degree” to her...”
One of the really bad decisions of my life was getting a Masters in Education with an endorsement in History (and a total of 18 Grad hours in History) instead of just going for a PhD in History. The higher degree would have only taken a year longer and it would not have been tainted by the College of Education.
In a prep school I was certified to teach history but wound up teaching English and Spanish. To have gained certification in Spanish I would not only have to take lots of Spanish courses (a reasonable requirement) but I would have once again been forced to take College of Education pedagogy courses specific to foreign languages.
The teaching methods course are based on quack junk research. The new methods are not producing good results.
I know. My sister went to a teacher college, and I used to skim her books.
I found out that rats don't like to be electrocuted, among other things.