elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green) (05/02/91)
From article <19176214446b281af75c@rose.uucp>, by david.lloyd-jones@rose.uucp (DAVID LLOYD-JONES): > The change that is needed is a change in the candidate pool applying for > jobs in education, and there is only one way you're going to get that: > offer money. Actually, the money isn't as bad as it used to be. In fact, I figured it out, and I could actually live on it. If I were to decide to spend a year in college taking education courses in order to qualify me to teach computer science and math at the high school level. And of course there's other benefits too. Job security, for one... after five or ten years with a school system, you're basically safe until retirement age. And also the opportunity to see your children grow. Teaching is a very strenous job, but the holidays coincide with your children's holidays, and some of the daytime tasks can be delayed until late at night to make time for doing outdoor things with your children. Of course, there's one minor flaw in the above. I have little desire to put on the same performance five times a day to five different groups of high school students. The lack of variety and spontaneity would be crushing. Which might have some bearing on the problem of getting adequate teachers for high schools. The job of middle school or high school teacher here in the U.S. is exhausting and tedious and impersonal, seeing hundreds of students each day flow in and out of your classroom and giving the same set routine to each group. Even if you paid me as much to teach high school math as I would get as a software engineer, I'd probably choose software engineering. The elementary school problem is a different thing altogether. One part is the candidate pool problem that you mention... our society doesn't stress interest in children on the part of males, striking out half of the candidate pool immediately. Secondly, the job of elementary school teacher appeals mostly to people-oriented individuals, rather than "things"-oriented individuals. It's part of the nature of the job. You remain an elementary school teacher because you enjoy being with children and guiding them, not because you understand math and science. Math and science understanding are a part of the equation that has nothing to do with why people become teachers. "People"-oriented individuals often view math and science as somehow "de-humanizing", and thus something rather distasteful and tolerated at best. Oh -- about people leaving accounting etc. to become teachers -- the teacher lobby has effectively rendered it impossible for anybody to get certified who has not graduated from a college or university with a full four years of education degree. The situation that happened in New York City in the 1930's, when thousands of European PhD's fleeing the Nazis ended up teaching in the public schools of the East Coast, producing a generation of scientists and intellectuals that hasn't been equalled since... that could not happen today. > Now to the real dismal news: as women find more opportunities in industry, > amny of the better ones will no longer be available to enrich the teacher > candidate pool. Actually, this has already happened. Why do you think education majors score so low on the ACT and SAT, compared to their female compatriots in other majors? -- Eric Lee Green (318) 984-1820 P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509 elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg