<p>Am I crazy? I want to teach high school history and english. I heard these majors require a lot of reading. I would also minor in secondary education. Thoughts?</p>
<p>You’re right, they do require a lot of reading and a lot of writing. I’m not sure where you are in the college process, but double majoring in English and history AND minoring in education might not be possible in a reasonable amount of time. At UR, we had an education minor that was 40 credits. It was a minor only in name; the university wanted you to have a primary subject focus as your major to go with the education aspect.</p>
<p>I think this is doable but you would probably need a school without too restrictive of a core curriculum.</p>
<p>Yes, this would likely be an intense amount of reading, but not impossible. Getting a degree in secondary education isn’t really necessary. To teach, you just need teacher certification. That might involve some courses and student teaching. Then once you’re out of college and teach for a while you would have to get an M.Ed. You can certainly still minor in education if you want the background and get certified, but they aren’t the same thing.</p>
<p>If you figure 32 courses in a typical undergrad experience, you’ll have around 20 of those taken up by your double major requirements and some more taken up by the teacher certification and/or education minor. Teacher certification in an area usually requires the major with maybe some other stipulations (like a geography course for history and a linguistics course for English). This would still leave you a little room for other courses/small core requirements.</p>
<p>These two majors go together well, appeal to many of the same people, and develop many of the same intellectual skills. You should love to read and analyze. Researching things in the library should make you happy. You should be a strong writer. Check the requirements for the majors at the schools that interest you (or the one you attend); often the English major will accept one or two courses in related fields, which can be a boon to double majors because part of your curriculum can count twice.</p>
<p>Even if you can’t fit the complete double major into your schedule along with the education courses, you can still take significant coursework in the “other” department alongside your major. I think some good college-level courses in English and American history are terrific supplements to any English major, because they will really help you understand the literature (especially the literature from earlier periods). I’m sure it works the other way as well.</p>
<p>Another possibility would be to do a double major in history and English, scant the education courses, and apply to teach in private schools, which do not have the same certification requirements.</p>