I want to do my BA, but I am not sure what to pick.
I want to have a stable job, but at the same time when I pick Education, I feel like I am so narrowed down. English major makes me feel a bit more wide/open. Basically, I don’t feel restricted.
However, I do enjoy teaching in a classroom setting to younger kids.
Now I feel conflicted.
I want to write stories too and I wanted to major in creative writing, so I could get more practice and feedback etc. But most forums mentioned how useless the degree is
How young is “younger”? Would you consider elementary school instead of just ECE? It would pay a bit more, though the job market can be tough in some areas. When you say you want to write, are you perhaps interested in Children’s Literature?
Education degrees are certainly more vocational than some bachelor’s degrees, but if you went for this then decided later on you wanted to switch careers, please dont think it would be impossible. Another thing you may consider is going for a bachelor’s in English and then if you still want to teach an MAT. And English is not useless, but you would need to get internships or other valuable experiences to get a job right out of undergrad (which you really have to do for most majors anyway, so don’t think English is useless!)
Don’t listen to random people on ‘forums’ unless they’ve got some reason to back up their claims. English degrees are not worthless. People sometimes perceive degrees like English to be that way because they’re not vocational, and people assume that most jobs want you to have a vocational major that’s something related to the job itself. But that’s actually not true - most jobs don’t require any specific major, and English majors (and other humanities and social science majors) can find jobs if they are creative and build necessary skills.
English majors have slightly higher unemployment rates than some other fields for recent college grads - the rate is about 9-10% for English majors with less than 5 years out of college, which is only a little higher than engineering fields (generally 6-9%), computer science (7-9%), marketing and accounting (both 7-9%), and about on par with economics (also 9-10%). The margin of error in large-scale surveys like the one underlying this one - the American Community Survey, a random sample of U.S. citizens - is about +/- 3%, which means in this case there may really be no meaningful difference at all.
The rates are even lower for English majors with at least 5 years out of college - closer to 5-6%. Those other fields are in the 3-6% range, so even closer.
The biggest difference comes in salaries. It’s probably little surprise to you that English majors don’t make as much as engineers or software developers.
If you want to teach English, you can major in English education. You’ll take similar classes to what the English literature majors are taking, but also education classes that will allow you to teach English (likely either in the middle or high school grades).
My friend’s D got a degree in early childhood education but didn’t really enjoy classroom teaching. She went back to school and got a masters enabling her to be a school librarian. She is very happy with her career path. Since you like writing and literature, as well as working with children, this might be a good path for you as well.
I am a school administrator who has hired many, many elementary and early childhood certified teachers throughout the years.
You do not need to major in education to teach. You just need to research the requirements for certification in your state and take the courses to fulfill them, as well as doing your supervised student teaching, either as an undergrad or grad student. It is easier to do so if you are part of an established program at a university.
I myself majored in English. But I did get my Master’s degree in elementary school curriculum and teaching and then my advanced certificate in educational administration.
I loved my undergrad experience in the liberal arts. I learned so much, and I learned how to think, write, listen, and articulate a stance— all skills that have helped me in my career.
My education courses were pretty useless, except for the student teaching and administrative internship components.
Just one person’s opinion!
