On 30 Jan 1998, Daphne M Norton wrote:
>> >
> > The other problem with teaching (and we're talking about primarily at the
> > HS level) is that in a lot of areas you're going to have unteachable
> > students and you could get killed or badly hurt through physical violence
> > from those who bring weapons to school. In areas where you have good kids
> > coming to school and the environment might be safer to work in, then the
> > teaching jobs (or so I've heard) are much harder to get.
> >
> > Art Sowers
> >
>> Yes Art, but university research professors are also killed
> by disgruntled graduate students. Haven't you heard the ball
> peen hammer story? Sometimes they use guns too.
Yes, but the socio-economic prerequisites at the college level cause
those who don't want to be there in the first place to not be there. I'd
say, for all other things being equal, college would be a safer place to
teach.
> I understand you wish to provide information, but your posts are
> always so pessimistic.
I hear, see, and experience much that is unhappy compared to what is
happy. Too many people are unjustifiably optimistic. Many national studies
show, with good data, that attempts to secure a career in science is less
likely to be successful than other professional occupations.
My emphasis is not entirely pessimistic; rather, I hope to get people to
try to look where they are going, ask people who have "been there" if they
would do anything differently if given a second chance, and make informed
decisions.
> Someone from my Ph.D. program is now teaching
> at a Catholic high school and really enojys it. He had several offers
> once pursuing high school teaching. Private schools are often very
> receptive to Ph.D.s and understanding during the certification
> process.
I have not seen any serious statistics on populations of people headed for
teaching careers except for the Wall Street Journal article that I
reported on. We get a lot of annecdotal stories on s.r.c. of both success
and failures. The failure stories outnumber the success stories. I have
nothing against those who acheive some level of success. The danger is to
assume that because someone else "did it" does not mean "I can do it too."
You gave in your last paragraph a single example. The article I cited was
authored by a person knowledgeable in the subject. I respected that. I
would have expected that you might have expressed some appreciation that
that I passed on that reference. After all, there is a fraction of the
people out there that is willing to worry about what the future job market
will look like.
Art Sowers
> --Daphne
>>>
