@shawnspencer: “Teachers jump through many hoops for a job that is often more difficult than a college professor.”
Fixed that for you—and fixed it speaking as a college professor. Standing in front of a room of K-12 students 5 days a week? No thank you, I’ll take my teaching-research split job (the teaching mostly for people who are there by choice, no less!) anytime over that.
Many private schools do not pay especially well, but their perks and environments are terrific.
Unless you are personally paying the bills, there is never a good excuse for telling someone whether their reasons for pursuing a higher education, or their chosen fields of study, are valid. My father once said that simply being able to read with pleasure and comprehension was reason enough. In a democratic society, the ability to make informed, considered decisions on Election Day should be sufficient validation for an education. Plenty of colleges offer Education majors, but I would prefer for my kids to be taught by individuals who had studied their subjects at a high level, and who possibly had some breadth. Oscar Wilde defined a cynic as one who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. Do we need more cynics or more idealists teaching our kids?
I used to be an elementary school teacher. I got my undergrad degree in Child Study at Tufts and got my grad degree in Education at Harvard. The original post is ridiculous and an insult as well. Not to mention, I don’t see going to college strictly about what job you will have when you enter your career. I went to college to become educated.
The facts are that average pay for teachers at private schools is markedly lower than for public school teachers, and that 4 months of “paid” vacation you are referring to is essentially spreading their salary over the three summer months.
My DD is currently going to Columbia (Teachers College) for a Masters in Secondary Mathematics Education…she has wanted to be a math teacher since 5th grade. We do get the “But she’s so smart…” and I say “I am glad she has a plan. She has an undergraduate math degree should she ever decide teaching is not for her.”
Perhaps I should add “You don’t want smart people being teachers?” 
In my state, my teacher friends all make quite a bit more than I do, so I don’t see it as a low paying job per se, although it is low pay for the level of education required and the importance of the job.
My older daughter is a teacher, she has a love/hate relationship with the job (loves the kids and the actual teaching; hates that she spends more time documenting things for Common Core requirements than she does teaching). She is getting ready to start her Masters, she is thinking of going into administration, which would suit her very well. Her childhood dream was to open her own school - when she was 11 or so, she used to look for buildings on Realtor.com that could be turned into schools! Who knows, maybe she’ll achieve that dream.
@bopper: “Perhaps I should add ‘You don’t want smart people being teachers?’”
Yes, please do.
I guess we’re not in Finland–best education system in the world–where one of the keys to success was raising the status of teachers to that of dermatologists and hedge fund managers.
I was the person who made that comment and I don’t think it is ignorant at all to ask this question. IMHO, I don’t see why someone wouldn’t aim higher than that. With a degree from Princeton or WUSTL, you get so many more opportunities. OP wants to focus on the sciences. Why take that elite education and funnel it into becoming a teacher? Why not become a professor? Why not try to become an administrator in a public school system so you can impact more schools? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I was simply asking the OP a question on their thread and perhaps it was not relevant to the topic of the thread, but it was a genuine question. There’s no doubt that the OP is very bright and will make a difference in the world. Why limit it to 20 kids in a classroom when you can impact the world?
And FYI, disagreeing with my opinion does not make it ignorant.
Being a k-12 teacher and being a professor are two completely different careers with different potential areas of greatest satisfaction. They are not on a continuum of hierarchy or task complexity.
Professors don’t have nearly the impact on students’ personal development at an early age that teachers do. My students are already largely formed, and I have comparatively little power to change them. Professors also have loyalty primarily to their intellectual field, not to human service. In k-12 teaching, it’s the opposite. I have been a public school teacher. They are just very different careers, and some who might love one career might hate the other.
Over time, a good k-12 teacher has thousands of students and a potentially huge impact on individuals, families, and communities.
Many people who go into administration only do it for the money. It’s not where their heart is. They miss the classroom.
@NJSue wrote: “Being a k-12 teacher and being a professor are two completely different careers with different potential areas of greatest satisfaction. They are not on a continuum of hierarchy or task complexity.”
Hear, hear! Speaking as a college professor, I really do with that more people understood this—K-12 education and postsecondary education are related fields, of course, but the assumption that they’re basically the same has led to all sorts of poor public policy and planning over the years.
After you’ve been out of high school a few years, Calicash, you may have a different perspective. The OP of the other thread could just as easily ask you the same thing, though. You want to be a writer, right? You could be one, and for much cheaper, by commuting to your local SUNY for $7k/year instead of borrowing $8-10k/year from your grandfather to attend a more expensive college. So why are you willing to pay more to go into a low paying, unappreciated career?
Calicash-YES, your statement IS ignorant. Teachers, good teachers, can impact thousands, who can in turn impact thousands, and any one of those thousands might be the person who cures cancer, or forges world peace or eliminates hunger. That might sound like a platitude, but it’s not. SOMEONE taught the inventors, and creators and engineers and Nobel Peace Prize winners. SOMEONE gave them confidence, got them interested in learning, pointed them in the right directions, praised them and nurtured them. And on a smaller scale, it’s often TEACHERS who take a struggling kid and help them over a hump, teachers who spot an abused kid and gets them help, teachers who take a quirky kid and help them find a way to shine, teachers who take a kid with a disability and help them feel “normal” (I say this as a hearing-impaired person who had such a teacher), teachers who show a bright but scattered kid how to harness their gifts.
To paraphrase an old commercial, I think teaching, next to parenting, is one of the “toughest jobs you’ll ever love”. As a teacher you are literally, and directly affecting lives and futures. If you’re good at it, those young minds will remember you forever as a person who helped them become who you are. If you’re not so good, that person will remember you in a negative way forever. Why not hope that ALL teachers get the best education possible so that they can all excel?
One last thing-as a former writer myself who now drives a desk because writing jobs are shrinking on the vine (and I make more money doing it too), I ask the same question as the person above-why don’t YOU settle for a cheaper education since you’re going to be “just a writer” and maybe not even then, since writing jobs are very difficult to get and pay poorly in many instances? Why not become a professor or an administrator? They’re better, right?
@Calicash - K-12 teachers are quite literally shaping the minds of the next generation. Maybe a science teacher will inspire the person who discovers a cure for AIDS to go into science research. Maybe an elementary school teacher will teach a brilliant novelist the basics of grammar and sentence structure. As a teacher, I have the power not only to shape my students’ minds, but also how they see themselves. One of the greatest feelings in the world is watching my students learn just how much they are capable of, and seeing their self-confidence and self-efficacy grow.
More directly on the topic of the thread, you should see the looks I get when I tell people who know my background that I’m now a high school teacher! Many of them feel, like you do, that should “aim higher”. I could aim “higher”, and maybe one day I will, but right now, I am exactly where I need to be.
@CaliCash I think it is the “just a teacher” part that bothers people. It reinforces the notion that teaching is not a valued profession, which is unfortunate.
@Calicash Why not become a teacher? You say that there are many more opportunities, but anyone considering such prestigious colleges already knows that the world is their stage. Choosing a profession that is generally debased by society doesn’t mean someone is limiting themselves. They are making a choice to follow a passion. I love learning and young children. They are my passions. Therefore I CHOOSE to become an elementary teacher. I do not limit myself to it. I choose to influence 20 kids in a classroom each year because I believe that they are worth it. I choose to give them the best possible start in life. I choose to work closely with children because it is rewarding to see them grow academically and morally. I choose to impact the world one child at a time. I have no limits.
My favorite teacher at my high school was a Yale grad. Smart, passionate, creative! However, the most significant statement he made during my 3 years of classes with him was the irony that his parents paid for him and his 2 siblings to have a world class education from arguably one of the best schools in the world and he chose a profession that prevented him from putting even 1 of his 4 kids through our state flagship school with out student loans. We asked if he regretted his profession. Of course his answer was no. But he said he would have gladly gone to the local state school for $19,000 for 4 years tuition and saved his parents $100,000 in tuition or better yet maybe they could have dedicated that $100,000 towards their grand kids education. So the question I have to ask is… would he have been the same teacher coming out of our state flagship as he was coming out of Yale. Did the school make the teacher or did the man make the teacher?
I do not understand why we would demean or diminish any job or profession. I am curious why a person would feel compelled to question another’s career choice. Should I ask the electricians I know why they didn’t aspire to obtain an electrical engineering degree? Or ask my friend why she wasted 5 years of her life simply to get a masters degree and pursue social work? She is so smart, surely she could be making more money or doing “better” in another field.
As for teachers, I know many. It is a labor of love, and my children have benefitted far more from having an excellent teacher (and suffered through some poor ones, in all fairness) than they have benefitted from a school administrator. A K-12 teacher simply has more impact on a child.
For the record, I support kids going to any college - whatever they and their family can afford. I have seen great teachers who went to the most selective schools and equally great teachers who graduated from their state teachers college. Ivy League or state U. It makes no difference. Work hard, become educated and follow your passion.