<p>That is where the ‘brutal honesty’ part comes in. </p>
<p>Do all the 2380 SAT, 4.999 wGPA kids HAVE to go to the Ivies for Pre-Med, or is it the lucrative rewards of the MD awaiting after the ink dries out in the diploma? Do all these kids all of a sudden decide to like “Biology” after a couple classes in HS dissecting frogs?</p>
<p>There are seven engineering and science degrees hanging in our library. I would not dream of sending my kids to either engineering or science. These jobs already have the lifespan of a fruit fly in this country. </p>
<p>Elbonian Basket Weaving comes into play only to the extent of who’s paying the bill. If my kid can get an Elbonian legacy scholarship and study the stuff, good for him. If I have to pay the bill for four years of that, I’ll pass. </p>
<p>It always comes down to who pays the bill. Some kids are ‘multi-talented’ but for those of us that don’t stay up all night wondering what brand of violin strings to use for our kids’ audition into the Boston Conservatory we have to face the reality (the jobs reality I may say) of 2020 and beyond. </p>
<p>Math is very useful - and most of the problem I have in this country with math is how it’s taught - but one has to be realistic about chances for work in a university environment. Parental guidance is nothing more than explaining the birds and bees of what a particular job involves and what are the chances for a job now and what the trends are for the future. </p>
<p>The little seed I planted in 9th grade was the creative and fun aspects of architecture; an area that I, as a former civil engineer with a minor in architecture know quite well. Start 9th grade with a college level course in 3D modeling and CAD. 10th grade with more drafting and design courses; 11th and 12th more traditional art; throw in freebies such as an 11th grade class in building a house from scratch. Add lots of trips to national galleries, museums here and abroad, and the like. That’s what it is to ‘cultivate’ the little seed. </p>
<p>Would my child have done differently on her own? maybe, maybe not. Her other love is literature (breezed thru AP Lit and AP Language). But, she’s the creative type, and while she is an excellent writer I’m not convinced a career in creative writing has ‘good odds’ (unlike my officemate whos’ sending his kid to Cornell for creative writing :-)). I also could not see my daughter teaching - she’s not the teacher / empathic / loves to be around others type. That is what the brutal honesty is all about.</p>
<p>On another note, there seems to be so much support for being a high school teacher from so many here. Why did you not go for teaching yourself? What were the downsides? Shouldn’t you share those with the OP as well instead of merely affirming him?</p>
<p>after four (maybe more) years of undergrad, look for some money. if a grad school will pay a major part of your expenses for a PhD - go for it. otherwise get a job with your math/cs degree. after a few years of either experience you’ll have more to offer as a math teacher, if you still want to do that. your parents have no reason to complain if you support yourself.</p>
<p>So unless every single respondent who is not discouraging the OP from rejecting teaching outright as a career is a teacher himself, the opinion is invalid? I’m not sure what your point is.</p>
<p>The main “downside” to teaching here appears to be a perception that one doesn’t make “enough” money doing it and the OP’s father, who chose teaching as a career, is discouraged by the occasional lazy and disrespectful student. Obviously, for several of us, we do make “enough” money for us and the gratifications of teaching outweigh the problems.</p>
<p>NJSue, My point is very simple. There are many here who are extolling the virtues of teaching while not being a teacher themselves. There is a reason why they didn’t choose that path. They need to give this young man a full view of the pluses and minuses of teaching. Instead, they are giving this young man career advice, while decrying his parents doing the same. Somehow, if parents give career advice, it is bad, but if complete strangers do so from their own biases, it is the epitome of good advice.</p>
<p>I personally cannot for the life of me understand how teaching K-12 can be gratifying (forget the money), but that’s just me. I wonder if I should tell the OP to go become a quant on Wall Street and make millions.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps, every parent plants seeds in their kids based on their personal value system, but you just don’t like the seeds cultivated in this case.</p>
<p>I don’t think that I didn’t go into teaching because I didn’t want to be a teacher. I think I didn’t choose teaching because I chose the thing that really interested me, that I had talent for and that felt meaningful to me. It was a choice for something, not a choice against everything else. It’s like saying that if you major in biology it’s somehow because there is something bad about majoring in math that kept you from majoring in math, when the reason you majored in biology is because it was what most interested you.</p>
<p>Then you should not teach. Some people find it very gratifying. If the OP thinks that it would be a gratifying career for him, then he should give it serious consideration.</p>
<p>Of course, there are downsides to teaching. I’d like to know what profession there is that has no downside. I have enough family and friends who are teachers to have heard what some of the downsides are: you may have an administrator you don’t like, you may have a district that is dysfunctional, you may live in a state with severe budget issues that are impacting education, you may have discipline issues and either administrators or parents who undercut what you do, you may have kids who come to you without the skills necessary to do the curriculum that is in the course, you may not like having to grade papers at home, you may not like having to lesson plan, you may get tired of the same material year after year, you may not like being on your feet for hours every day or using your voice all the time. It’s a hard job, it’s not really for the faint-hearted. Maybe one of the teachers on this thread could give a list of all the things that make it gratifying.</p>
<p>No doubt; teaching, like other ‘empathic’ fields like medicine, has its own ‘calling’. A lot of professions do. The sooner the parents (and students) realize this the better off everyone will be.</p>
<p>For every profession I can do there are ten or more that I outright can’t do. Sales, medicine, teaching, and so on. In my case I know from experience, having worked in all three fields.</p>
<p>Good things about teaching: The students are the best part of teaching. Seeing students grow. Connecting with young people, who for the most part are the most pure they will ever be. The ability to infuse creative thought process into what I teach. Helping young people overcome difficulties. That “ah-ha” moment. Proving to students that they can learn and grow. Seeing young people years or decades later and learning that you did make a difference!</p>
<p>By the way, for all the fussing on this site that parents have, know this; almost EVERY kid turns out! The ones who sometime stumble, begin to get it together by age 23. I know this from decades of experience and decades of young people seeking me out to tell me they are OK. Your idea of OK may be different from their idea of OK. It’s their life.</p>
<p>No, IndianParent. We let our kids choose their career because it’s their lives, not ours. We had (and still have) the chances to determine our own careers.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be a teacher in a million years – because it’s not me and I wouldn’t be very good at it. That has nothing to do with advising someone who wants to be a teacher that there’s nothing wrong with being a teacher and if that’s what you want, go for it. We’re extolling the benefits of doing what you love – even if that specific thing isn’t the thing that <em>we</em> particularly love. </p>
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<p>Well, that’s really odd. I wouldn’t find teaching K-12 to be gratifying, but it’s pretty darn easy to understand that other people – who are not me, who are themselves! – might find it very gratifying. I don’t understand how supposedly “smart” people don’t get that different people like different things.</p>
<p>I am just going to say this. I am a high school student and I have found that if you have a doubt about weather your parents are correct or not, just assume they are correct and it usually works out. I have only found one exception to this, and in that case, they were not even my parents.</p>
<p>I think it takes quite an ego to assume that your kids will or should be interested in the same things you’re interested in. I would never try to “cultivate” my kids to be either what I am or what my husband is. If they’re interested, they’ll pick it up. If not, there are thousands of other careers to be had.</p>
<p>And there is nothing wrong with that approach. I myself posted a note stating precisely the same. Do it for yourself, and for a very selfish reason, because you want to do it. What I was reacting to was the holier-than-thou posts about how teaching is a noble profession, how the OP’s parents are money-hungry, so on and so forth. That’s just plain uncouth. I do not believe that anyone here cares more about the OP than his parents. Anyone who believes that is delusional. </p>
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<p>You totally missed my point. It was about not advocating careers to strangers on an anonymous internet forum regardless of your personal preferences. If you just stay at do-what-you-love-to-do that’s fine. The only person I would give career advice to is my kid, or the kids of a few very close friends who I have seen grow up over the years and care about them as deeply as I do for my own kid. It is all about trust and care, not flippant comments about how teaching changes lives.</p>