At the same time everyone wants to teach and sell courses, no one want to actually do things they're supposedly a guru at.
Nobody wants to teach anymore
231–240 of 1001 posts
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#232Anecdote time: In June, I left my position teaching high school English after about ten years. Within weeks, I have increased my TC from ~50k to ~80k. Admittedly, I will have fewer vacation days, but I will work fewer hours with no additional labor or responsibilities in the evening/weekends.
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think we need to admit managerialism fails at knowledge fields — perhaps Taylorism entirely. I’m not sure what’s better, though.
I wholeheartedly agree. I think a critical examination of the MBA degree, and the values it embodies, is long overdue.
Honestly there’s useful and interesting stuff in an MBA course, but it has very little to do with practical management of a business at any level. Pretty useful if your job is doing financial projections of projects with relatively predictable costs and payoffs.
Imagine if we put in charge of a tech firm the dude with the best understanding of category theory.
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#234A few random thoughts: 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. 3. Teachers frequently complain about how they are unappreciated, yet children spend _12 years_ in their care. Why do people come up to them and say they hated s…
> 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? Counterpoint: teachers' pay is great, it's just backloaded in pension plans. > 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. Yeah, but cost is the same and cost is what's important. > 4. Many school problems are caused by disrup…
> Counterpoint: teachers' pay is great, it's just backloaded in pension plans.
Yet another counter counterpoint - there are still companies and government jobs with defined pension plans that pay far more than teachers. Even without those, there are still many, many jobs requiring a comparative amount of education, far fewer hours worked, and pay more even once you subtract maximizing 401k contributions yearly (let alone considering the added costs of buying school supplies).
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#235Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#236A few random thoughts: 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. 3. Teachers frequently complain about how they are unappreciated, yet children spend _12 years_ in their care. Why do people come up to them and say they hated s…
>...parents who frankly just don’t give a shit... From my experience teaching in multiple Western and non-Western countries, I believe that this factor outweighs all the others put together.
Same, to be completely honest. Generally, if the parents care about education and are involved the kids will do fine. This is complicated when mom wants her kids to do well but has to work two jobs and older brother watches younger sister after school, but in general it's an easily predicted trend.
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#237A few random thoughts: 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. 3. Teachers frequently complain about how they are unappreciated, yet children spend _12 years_ in their care. Why do people come up to them and say they hated s…
> 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? Counterpoint: teachers' pay is great, it's just backloaded in pension plans. > 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. Yeah, but cost is the same and cost is what's important. > 4. Many school problems are caused by disrup…
> Counterpoint: teachers' pay is great, it's just backloaded in pension plans.
25% of teachers in Minnesota leave the profession within three years [1] so they see no pension. This sort of weed out is common in a lot of professions and it's probably for the best, but weed out careers often combine high starting pay to attract a large pool of candidates. Public sector jobs exchange low pay for a pension and stability. Teaching doesn't offer the latter.
1. https://www.educationworld.com/a_news/state-report-reveals-o...
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Salaries in large urban districts are often well above area median Is the median the correct benchmark? The median household income in NYC was $67k in 2021 [0]. Why would someone choose to be a teacher making around the median [1] when you could be a software engineer and make 3x as much? It's not just a matter of trinkets and baubles. That difference allows you to comfortably afford a nice family sized apartment […
That assumes someone qualified to be a teacher is also qualified to be a software engineer. Have you met a lot of urban public school teachers?
They spend all day herding children, so they are at least qualified to be Project Managers.
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#239People do want to teach and get paid to do it. It’s called private schools. They charge what the market will bear for their quality and location, and they pay what the market rate is for teachers of the requisite quality that let them charge the rates they need. What confuddles people in education is the same thing that causes endless articles about housing, healthcare, inflation… it’s called “basic economics”. Just…
I partially agree with you, but private school teachers often get paid less than their public school counterparts. Private schools get a flood of applications from humanities PHDs who don't have the certifications required to teach in public schools, so it's very much a race to the bottom in terms of salary. Private school's biggest advantage for teachers is that the parents treat education seriously, so they are les…
That is another vector on the spectrum of decisions for why quality teachers choose to work at private schools. No one takes a job purely on salary - a decision like that is based on many things.
Isn’t it obvious that good teachers want to teach children with parents that want them to learn? And punish their children when they are disruptive? And the school can kick out bad kids?
The current vogue of reducing everything in education to the lowest common denominator - eliminating gifted programs, enabling disruptive kids to ruin classes, removing suspensions and expulsions - is exactly why private schools are growing. I don’t want education to optimize for the worst kids who won’t go to college and into intellectual pursuits anyway. I want to optimize education for the kids who will actually get value out of it.
Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore
#240A few random thoughts: 1. For as much as we spend on education, teachers seem to be grossly underpaid - to be getting robbed of their share of the budget. Where does that money go? 2. It seems that education degrees are seen as easier to achieve than others. 3. Teachers frequently complain about how they are unappreciated, yet children spend _12 years_ in their care. Why do people come up to them and say they hated s…
On 4:
I disagree that more resources cannot help with this problem.
Some disruptive children have undiagnosed learning disabilities. Having more money for screening and special education can help get them the support they need.
Class sizes are also going to matter. Many disruptive children are just seeking attention. With smaller classes teachers can spend more time with each student, which will help with behavior management.
I don’t know what the right level of investment here is, but from speaking with friends who are teachers it sure seems like classes are too big and special Ed is stretched incredibly thin.