A lot of education "experts" (people doing education research, policy and Ted talks) are usually privileged enough that their parents forced them to memorise enough phonics and times tables to get to college, and think that the teachers who tried to do the same were just wasting their precious time when they could have been doing interesting things like talking about philosophy.
Education as a discipline has no real knowledge or skills in the Anglosphere beyond basic essay writing. Historically teaching was a craft, taught in trade schools or on the job, but for various reasons it moved to university without universitiea having of the content developed, so universities took the low road and asked PhD candidates to essentially write essays on the philosophy of education so that's now the content.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, teach teachers, and since the content is just writing essays on the philosophy of education their confidence in non-existent abilities is never pressure tested.
They're not mutually-exclusive sets. In professional schools (law, medicine, perhaps others), some of the best-regarded instructors are successful practitioners who teach on the side.
Can you suggest a culture that does it better and/or better methods? Your point of view meshes with mine and I have a young child and I'm worried about the education he's going to get in Canada.
Spending 10 minutes a day on reading or math is probably fine, if you are 1:1 you can just problem solve most issues with a mainstream student, and if they are having major issues look at what special ed teachers do (they are way more scientific than mainstream teachers as they can't rely on the students componsate for bad teaching).
For older kids, it can be a bit tricky, as their goals and opinions will matter a lot more, but look into evidence based study habits for exams, and help them get assignments done with a decently efficient process I guess.
Honestly? it's fine. Every culture does it differently and they all focus in x for lack of y. South Asian cultures for example treat their universities as job training centers (and generally tend to lack liberal arts and social education) whereas universities are ideally supposed to make you a well rounded person etc.
Education as a discipline has no real knowledge or skills in the Anglosphere beyond basic essay writing. Historically teaching was a craft, taught in trade schools or on the job, but for various reasons it moved to university without universitiea having of the content developed, so universities took the low road and asked PhD candidates to essentially write essays on the philosophy of education so that's now the content.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach, teach teachers, and since the content is just writing essays on the philosophy of education their confidence in non-existent abilities is never pressure tested.