<p>What Clayton said was a bit true, some new and young professors teach at multiply CC’s, you just have to until you obtain a type of tenure at one. </p>
<p>As for teaching HS? Not a public, and never for to the LAUSD. I’d rather go work in a cubicle than teach for the LAUSD. Most of those teachers flat out hate their jobs. I do not blame them, most students are just flat out lazy. I was one of these students that gave my HS teachers a hard time. I was the smart as$. I didn’t get my act together till I worked in Corp. America and was pushed to go to college by parents, peers and fellow employees. I wish I had started a bit earlier, but now look, 3.83 GPA, will be attending UCLA in the fall. But I do not want to waisting time for those who do not want to learn now.</p>
<p>I do not want a job that merely pays me a salary. I want to passionate about my job, if it is going to be an educator, working in museums or seeing a opportunity in front of me that I can not pass up. Who knows! But, I do not worry too much about what I would do with my degree. You should not view a degree as an investment, in fact it is, but money should not be the motivator of your pursuit of getting a degree. You must love your major, once you do, people will notice it, and doors will open. </p>
<p>I think it’s really sad you feel LAUSD is beneath you because “teachers hate their jobs” and the students are “flat out lazy”. I think it’s this perpetual apathy that created a cycle of indifference and negative results in the public school system. I’m not trying to offend you, sincerely. I just wanted to point out that your attitude prevails in our public system like a plague and creates an even more destructive pattern. We can only expect change when we engage and change it. LAUSD needs a stronger foundation of new graduates who want to make a difference, not run away because it offends them. Just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>@fullload - I don’t think they were saying the job was beneath them, but rather a job they did not want to do. If a person has negative feelings towards a job or organization, isn’t it better that they make a conscious decision to seek employment elsewhere? If a person, for whatever reason does not want to teach HS at LAUSD, that’s ok. It is better to have a person come in who wants to take on that challenge. </p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t want to teach middle school. I think that age group is horrendous as a group. However there are great MS teachers who have the right attitude about teaching them. Why would you want someone teaching your kids who takes on the job only as a challenge or because of some false sense of obligation. </p>
<p>I personally am going back to school so that I can have additional professional opportunities and CHOICES. We should all want to have choices. Choosing not to do a job does not mean you feel the job is beneath you- it means it’s not a good fit for you.</p>
<p>If I came across harsh or insulting, I apologize, I of course have no problem with anyone who decides not to pursue a job for his own personal reasons. However I was just pointing out that his reasons were systemic and part of a much larger picture of why the LASUD system is struggling. It’s not his choice to turn away from it, it’s his reasons behind his decision I find troubling. It’s not that he wants to pursue another avenue, it’s that he’s actively avoiding LAUSD because he finds the teachers mediocre and the students even worse. That’s the reason why a good teacher SHOULD choose LAUSD, not the other way around.</p>
<p>He/ she said the “teachers flat out hate their job”. He’s acknowledging that a problem, and not to further the problem he’s choosing not to join a group of teachers who hate their job when he believes he would be no different. Everyone can’t take on the same challenges. Let someone who wants to take on the challenge of making HS better take on that challenge, and let other people take on different challenges. In our society we have enough different battles and challenges so that we can all work on something that is must meaningful to each of us. </p>
<p>I didn’t mean to offend anybody either, I was just going by experience and numbers. LAUSD was ranked as one of the worst districts in all of California. It is not only the LAUSD, California is also ranked at the bottom for reading, and writing. I won’t even get into science and mathematics. I did not want to have this holier attitude. Again, I was a product of the LAUSD from K till the first few months of my senior year. I began home-schooling in November of that year, not only did I finish ahead of my class, home-schooling was a gateway to what college was going to be. It was no babysitting, had to pass with at least an 80%. </p>
<p>As for teachers(again my experience) you always sensed they hated being there. When I think back, I truly feel bad for them, it was as if their words were going to deaf-ears. I can only imagine how bad it is now when kids have cellphones right under fingertips! I remember passing notes! </p>
<p>I totally agree with you that there needs to be a foundation that helps the youth but once again, numerous times people that are a lot smarter than me have tried and have failed. We sure never secede to failing but until there is a better system that is established then we must look to other opportunities. </p>
<p>I don’t think that those of us on this thread chose our majors because we would make tons of money. I think we all chose our various majors because we have a need and want to better understand our society, where we’ve been, where we’re going, and how can we make it a little better. I think we’re a passionate group who all want to do good work in this crazy world, even if we don’t always agree on how to go about doing that. </p>
<p>Article in Salon today. They are referring to Ph.Ds, but the job market is also bleak for science doctorates, to be fair. Nice charts for both humanities and science:</p>
<p>The job market for almost all people with Ph.Ds is terrible, assuming that they wish to become professors, as most people with doctoral degrees do. There are way too many people with Ph.Ds pursuing too few tenure-track jobs in academia and it’s been that way for a few decades now. Humanities Ph.Ds, science Ph.Ds, engineering and math Ph.Ds…no one is exempt…</p>
<p>But a Ph.D. would be quite useful in other areas of employment.</p>
<p>If you are getting a PhD for job security you are probably going to not even be admitted into a PhD program (it will probably show when you’re applying) and if you do, whatever the person is doing, they will probably hate it.</p>
<p>I think why the job market sucks for PhDs is the chances of getting a teaching position is so slim (why you see Harvard/Princeton/ Yale etc PhDs teaching at no name Liberal Arts colleges) and you have pretty much shot yourself out of all entry level positions that are needed for career advancement. The only PhDs I know of that usually have decent employment are Econ, Stats and CS, but I can’t really comment on that except what I’ve seen. </p>
<p>At the same time, people think doing or majoring in certain things are auto employment/high pay (CS, Business, “pre-med”, “engineering”), but those people will face the same weeding out. I think the best thing to do while going to a university is to obtain knowledge in things that you wouldn’t be able to really learn on your own and mix it with something practical at the same time. </p>
<p>If you are majoring in humanities and are passionate enough about it, you will probably work something out once you graduate. I’ve seen it go both ways, you could do engineering and get stuck in a 50k-60k a year job with minimal advancement at some defense firm, or have a humanities degree and end up working at Goldman Sachs. I think the gap between humanities vs the sciences is really non existent. Of course you’re not going to go into EE/hardware design with an English degree etc. </p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing @cayton. Who the hell gets a Ph.D unless thy’re an academic or a researcher? The only job for a Ph.D English major back when I was at college was as a professor. I wish the study had been with bachelor degrees. </p>
<p>Some people with Ph.Ds have used their degrees in unorthodox ways, such as obtaining jobs in the business sector. It can happen…but you’re right, it really is for people who’d like to teach at colleges and universities.</p>
<p>In regards to bachelors’ degrees and salaries, this link should be useful:</p>
<p>Humanities majors actually do all right, all things considered. As expected, STEM majors do pretty well, but this financial success is limited to math, engineering, and physics. Surprisingly, STEM isn’t the ticket to prosperity that many people think it is, and there probably isn’t a shortage of STEM workers as some people would have you believe.</p>
<p>This is from the Rochester Institute of Technology. The article disputes the claim that STEM workers are in short supply and the implicit assumption that a STEM degree always comes with a high salary. It’s very fascinating to read, even if you may disagree with its conclusions. I recommend it for everyone.</p>
<p>I like to think humanities degrees make your soul grow and make life a bit better. I always respect a humanities major for instance. Yes, there may not be much money in that area but God, do you learn from it. I say follow your passions, don’t worry about money or what your parents think, do what you want to do. </p>
<p>Good luck with everything. </p>
<p>Edit: I just realized I responded a tad bit late, it was a featured thread. Nonetheless I hope you do what you love, life is entirely too short not to. </p>