For 150 years, America ran its schools on an invisible subsidy: the captive talent of brilliant women who were barred from nearly every other profession, and Catholic teaching sisters who worked for room, board, and vows. Then, between 1963 and 1980, the doors opened, the convents emptied — and we never repriced the job. Who Taught the Teachers is a 12-part ReThink History series on the profession behind every classroom in America. It runs from the colonial schoolmaster who slept in his pupils' houses, through the invention of the normal school and the birth of the teaching license, to the marriage bars, the talent drain, a record 26.9% pay penalty, and the empty pipelines of today. Along the way it answers the questions that started it: when did a certificate become necessary, when did states build teachers' colleges and why did nearly all of them stop training teachers, what happened when women finally had other options, who competed hardest for America's children — and whether any of it shows up in what students actually learn. Episodes, in order: 1. Why Early America Never Trained Its Teachers 2. How the Normal School Invented Teacher Training 3. How Teaching Became Women's Work — at Half the Pay 4. The History of the Teaching License in America 5. How Normal Schools Became State Universities 6. Marriage Bars and Loyalty Oaths: Policing Teachers 7. How Nuns Built and Lost the Catholic School Empire 8. How Teaching Lost Its Captive Talent, 1963–1980 9. The History of American Teacher Pay 10. Do Teachers Actually Matter? 50 Years of Measuring 11. Why Teacher Preparation Programs Are Collapsing 12. What It Would Cost to Fix American Teaching Companion series: The Way We Learn — the same century seen from the student's side. Best heard in order. 🔔 Subscribe: youtube.com/@LetsRethinkHistory?sub_confirmation=1 🎙 Narrated by AI voices from sourced, human-reviewed research. 👍 Like and Subscribe, it really helps the channel reach others. #History #TeacherHistory #ReThinkHistory