Assuming TV follows reality…
…the American school system is really weird.
I just watched Glee 3.12 The Spanish teacher, and in it, Mr. Schuester gets scolded by Principal Figgins for not being a good enough Spanish teacher. So Will decides to go to night school to improve his Spanish, and once there, he can barely follow the native Spanish speaker teaching the class. How then is it at all possible that the school even hired him? How the hell can you justify hiring someone who barely speaks a language to teach that same language.
Now, I live in a country where you don’t get to teach high school unless you have, at the very least, a Bachelor’s degree in whatever subject it is you’re teaching. You don’t get into a teaching position just because it’s the only one available. And you sure as hell don’t get to switch from the one subject you’re not qualified to teach to another one that you’re also not qualified to teach.
I can overlook a lot of stupid things Glee does, but this… And the worst part is, I’m not even sure if this is purely a TV high school thing or actually happens in real life on the other side of the ocean. However, considering the amount of flak the school system is getting over there, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this actually happens.