<p>I eventually want to become a college professor of literature and I've been told two different things about what I need to do to achieve this.</p>
<p>I've been told I need to double major in whatever I want to teach and education or just major in education and then go to grad school for what I want.</p>
<p>ORRRR...</p>
<p>That I should just do the traditional single-major in English and go to grad school for specialization and not to worry about education degrees.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell me what is the best choice?</p>
<p>If you want to teach literature at the college-level, you do not need a degree in education. In addition to a major in English, you could consider a major in comparative literature. Several other majors/minors also combine well with English, including rhetoric/writing, speech, American studies, drama/theatre, linguistics, Irish studies, film, women’s studies, African-American studies, history, etc. depending on your particular interests.</p>
<p>Education degrees are for elementary and secondary school teachers, though there are some states that prefer a bachelor’s in the subject you will teach and then teacher certification obtained in a postbaccalaureate program. For secondary level teaching, I’m not certain that you could major in just education; you would have to combine it with a content area (e.g., English). That wouldn’t be the best preparation for grad school with a goal of teaching at the college level since education courses would take up a cluster of courses that could be better used for additional courses in English or related areas. Many secondary school English teachers, however, do complete the requirements for a master’s degree during their summers. Due to the poor job market for persons with doctoral degrees in English, one sees more of them teaching at the high school level, though they would still need to meet the teacher certification requirements.</p>