<p>Recently I read a posting that ended with "they become public school teachers" ( or something similar). It was amusing and has stuck with me because for me it rings true. What percentage of lower and middle class students at prestigious universities become public school teachers? We talk about networking as a perk of these schools, but you can become a teacher anywhere, without killing yourself in HS. Are the ivy leagues one kind of school for the affluent and already networked, and a different kind of school(super nice teacher college) for everyone else. I'm finding stories about private planes and lots full of Porsches to be very intimidating. Is there a career benefit at the end of these 4 years, or is it a good kid feeling like a loser for 4 years and then becoming a public servant.</p>
<p>I"m not even sure what you’re asking. Is being a public servant a job for losers, in your book? Do you really think that rich students at Ivy League colleges bring private planes and Porsches to campus?</p>
<p>What is so bizarre about the idea of an Ivy-educated teacher? I don’t get it.</p>
<p>One of the best teachers at my kids’ HS is Ivy-educated. I’m not sure what your point is – that she couldn’t do anything else because she came from a humble background?</p>
<p>The best teacher in our kids’ public elementary school went to an Ivy league school for her bachelors and masters. She is amazing with the kids.</p>
<p>My teacher graduated from an Ivy and did not come from a “lower” or “middle class.” His mom went to Stanford and his dad was a lawyer. </p>
<p>My teacher had a different career before settling and choosing to become a teacher. </p>
<p>The job someone chooses is ultimately a choice, although certain circumstances leave people without one.</p>
<p>I guess I do think that rich kids are bringing Porsches and private planes to school. I also think that that keeps poorer kids from socializing as much(not strictly a negative if it means less drinking and drug use). I think feeling poor makes a person feel like a loser, and if you are surrounded by wealth then you might be hard on yourself, whereas if you go to a school where you fit in financially it would never cross your mind. No, I don’t think public servants are losers, but I also don’t think you need a 150000 education to work for the state. I’m not actually sure what you need a 150000 education for.</p>
<p>We have an IT teacher who went to MIT for undergrad and Harvard for graduate school.</p>
<p>BTW, another of my teachers went to Princeton, and he owned a business before becoming a teacher.</p>
<p>I understand that wonderful teachers come out of the ivy leagues. My point is that most of the people I know who have that educational background have become teachers. However, most of the people I know who went to Sac State also became teachers, and maybe had a more laid back and inclusive undergrad experience.</p>
<p>Lets change that to all of the people I know from prestigious schools are teachers. And 1 investment banker from Stanford.</p>
<p>Ivy colleges have a commitment to need-blind admissions and meeting full need of all accepted applicants. The stereotypical “rich-kid” behavior you seem to be concerned about would be more likely to occur at less highly ranked privates that are very expensive but offer poor aid.</p>
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<p>The COA at Ivies is more like 250K now but if you are accepted and your family has need, you will not pay that much. The Ivies are a great deal for talented students with modest family finances. They can be cheaper than state universities.</p>
<p>Do you ever ask them why they chose to be teachers?</p>
<p>Just because someone attends a prestigious school does not mean they will be rich. People have different drives and not everyone, believe it or not, is “money-thirsty.” Sometimes teaching is the easy way out, but of course you cannot generalize the people you know with everyone from top schools.</p>
<p>My teacher went to Harvard, worked at NASA, made a lot of money, so retired to teaching (he’s 35).
But both my friends parents went to Cornell and are now low income teachers.</p>
<p>No, I’ve never asked anyone why they chose to become a teacher. Frankly, I think some of the answers would be real downers, depending on the point in their career. I would love to ask them if they would do it over again but the question seems to personal. Much more fitting for an anonymous forum. I know a social worker who was valedictorian and went to Wooster, I would also like to know if she would direct her own children that way- I wish I had the guts to ask!</p>
<p>Every list I see of the top ten “easy” majors list education. Truth be told, the education major is disappearing. In my state, teachers must major in an academic discipline (English, history, chemistry, etc). The ed major will not get you a teaching license.</p>
<p>The myth perpetuated by those who want to keep teaching salaries down and denigrate teachers is that teachers are not the best or the brightest. In my school there are graduates of Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Yale, BC, Holy Cross who are teachers.</p>
<p>The parking lot at my alma mater has a bunch of Porsches, though Beemers are more common.</p>
<p>So how did you feel about your life while you we’re in school? Did you feel out of the loop and held back by finances? Would you have had a happier experience at a school where you were not poor by comparison? Sorry if I’m making assumptions, I guess this loaf could be cut oth ways, maybe you are wealthy and had to deal with poor people.</p>
<p>Bimmer, Benz, or Bentley…</p>
<p>omedog: your constant refrain seems to be about lower SES students feeling out of place at Ivies. Like others have said, they are very inclusive – a majority of students receiving FinAid. My father was a cook and my mother a waitress. I was admitted at multiple Ivies, matriculating at an HYP school. Were there insanely rich people around me? I’m sure there were. But that and a dollar got me a bag of chips.</p>
<p>I didn’t care. Nor did most of my fellow students. Out of place? What? Because there were wealthy people around me? Are you kidding? I was at one of the best places on the whole planet. Why should I care if I had to work a few hours a week for spending money? Didn’t care then, don’t care now. I can go to the opera with my alumni association and to the humble VFW BBQ the next night.</p>
<p>If both my kids wanted to pursue teaching and truly loved it, I’d be ecstatic. Even if they attend some “prestigious” college. I would hope that I’ve raised my kids to walk into a room and upon discovering that they were the poorest, wouldn’t automatically consider themselves a “loser”. Foreign concept to you?</p>
<p>Frankly I find your assumptions about socio-economic differences to be very sad and shallow</p>
<p>What a bizarre question. There are so many assumptions going on here: that one’s college education should correlate with one’s job, that the status of one’s college education should correlate with the status of one’s job, and that teaching is a low-status and low-ambition job. </p>
<p>I don’t think so. It takes a lot of effort and dedication to be a good teacher. Why can’t teachers be people who seek out a challenging educational environment for themselves? If someone goes to an Ivy and (gasp) decides to become a teacher after that long process of figuring out what it is they love and are good at, have they wasted their education?</p>
<p>I’ve had Oxbridge-educated teachers, what you could consider the UK equivalent of the Ivies, and frankly, not for a moment did social class seem to be an issue for them in the classroom. They went to those colleges because they (as teachers should) believed in self-improvement, and then they chose teaching because they loved it, not because they couldn’t hack it elsewhere or somehow felt uncomfortable around the “upper classes”. I can’t generalise this to be true of the UK but it was true among the teachers I had. </p>
<p>I have a horse in this race - I’ve worked in public schools in two different countries, and am currently taking a specialised teacher training course. I’ve been blessed with too many great teachers to believe that teaching is a profession that doesn’t benefit from its proponents having had a great education - the thought is utterly bizarre.</p>