I am a public school administrator, albeit one that specializes in elementary, not secondary, schools. I hire elementary school teachers every year.
I recommend a liberal arts major-- in your case, math. Depending on your state’s requirements, this may or may not be necessary for employment-- but how do you want to spend your undergraduate years-- bored or engaged? I think most education courses are mostly nonsense and do nothing to help you learn how to teach. Trust me, I have taken a lot of them, and not one graduate education class was as interesting as my least interesting class in the liberal arts as an undergrad. I can honestly say I can’t think of more than a handful of things I learned in education school that actually helped me in the classroom as a teacher or as administrator. I have been in my career since 1993. Student teaching and internships, however, provide valuable practice, experience, and mentoring.
Here is what you need: you need to make sure you will have access to a good student teaching program. The more supportive the supervision, the better-- none of those ‘we’ll chat with you online to supervise you’ programs, which are really terrible. Ideally you will have a community in which you can reflect on on your experiences in student teaching and learn from and with one another.
And you need to find out which education courses are required for certification in the state in which you want to be employed, and take those. Being part of program that includes direct certification, as opposed to having to prove you’ve met the requirements independently, is easier.
So, if you want to major in math, make sure that you do one of the following:
- Pick a college in which you simultaneously can complete your teaching certification requirements, including student teaching.
OR - Go to graduate school to pick up your master’s degree and certification simultaneously. If you teach in certain states, you will be required to get a master’s degree eventually anyway. If you can afford it-- and that is a big IF for a lot of people, who need to be employed sooner-- it is easier to do your master’s work before you are busy teaching during the day, writing lesson plans and grading at night, coaching or leading a club, and involved in evening committees at your place of employment.
Good luck!