Angry at college sophomore for changing to lower paying major

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Early childhood education is a specialized area of expertise just like Math/English/Science/History are.

I just disagree with this model.

It puts all the risk on the future early childhood educators. If the career works out, great. If you find out you don't enjoy teaching young kids as much as you thought, you're screwed because your education doesn't help you in any other way.

The school systems themselves should be able to train people with degrees in math, science, etc to be able to teach young children.

1st graders don't care if their teacher has an in depth knowledge of Calc 3. They care that their teacher knows how to lead circle time, gets their classmates to share, keeps them safe on the playground, knows when to schedule their potty breaks, knows when to refer them for special ed, knows how to teach them basic math and language arts, etc.

Teaching a HS kid AP BC Calc is a whole other ballgame.

Yeah I understand completely. I just think it's asking a lot for students to learn this all on their own before their first job offer and before they know for sure how much they like the career considering that the profession itself is not really high paid and the degree won't be good for much else if it doesn't work out.

That being said, how much of those things you said apply to 5th math in the OP's case?

5th grade is the tail end of EC. The kids still get bathroom breaks, recess, etc. A specialized 5th grade math teacher is going to have some combination of EC ed and math. Usually the teachers are not strictly math teachers in 5th grade, though. The teachers have a regular class and kids simply change classrooms to work on math. Teacher A may take all of the kids learning Pre algebra. Teacher B might take the kids who are working on exponents. Teacher C might take the kids who need extra help., etc.

[Anonymous]

This is why parent's shouldn't just pay for college. Let your kid take a loan and make the decisions THEY want to make. You can always set conditions under which you'll be happy to help them pay off the loan.

Let the kid have some skin in the game.

[Anonymous]

https://heights.edu/faculty/


http://www.brookewood.org/faculty.html

http://www.brookewood.org/faculty-bios.html

You can’t see the bios of the St Albans teachers but if you look them up (linked in?) or have a child there you’d know:

https://www.stalbansschool.org/page/academics/faculty--staff/faculty--staff-directory?deptId=22339

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Early childhood education is a specialized area of expertise just like Math/English/Science/History are.

I just disagree with this model.

It puts all the risk on the future early childhood educators. If the career works out, great. If you find out you don't enjoy teaching young kids as much as you thought, you're screwed because your education doesn't help you in any other way.

The school systems themselves should be able to train people with degrees in math, science, etc to be able to teach young children.

1st graders don't care if their teacher has an in depth knowledge of Calc 3. They care that their teacher knows how to lead circle time, gets their classmates to share, keeps them safe on the playground, knows when to schedule their potty breaks, knows when to refer them for special ed, knows how to teach them basic math and language arts, etc.

Teaching a HS kid AP BC Calc is a whole other ballgame.

Yeah I understand completely. I just think it's asking a lot for students to learn this all on their own before their first job offer and before they know for sure how much they like the career considering that the profession itself is not really high paid and the degree won't be good for much else if it doesn't work out.

That being said, how much of those things you said apply to 5th math in the OP's case?

5th grade is the tail end of EC. The kids still get bathroom breaks, recess, etc. A specialized 5th grade math teacher is going to have some combination of EC ed and math. Usually the teachers are not strictly math teachers in 5th grade, though. The teachers have a regular class and kids simply change classrooms to work on math. Teacher A may take all of the kids learning Pre algebra. Teacher B might take the kids who are working on exponents. Teacher C might take the kids who need extra help., etc.

I know - the whole premise here is a bit weird. 5th grade math teacher? I’ve heard of middle school math teacher but not someone who specializes in 5th grade math. Are you sure that your daughter is ok, OP?

[Anonymous]

How noble of her. Did she go to one of DC’s sparkling social justice private schools?

[Anonymous]

Have her teach later in life after she lives in the adult real world and pockets some money.

[Anonymous]

My favorite teacher- AP calc- was a former computer programmer. Best math teacher ever. And she opening told us she left a $250k+ job to teach HS math once her kids all were in school (5yo plus).

Maybe she knows she has a trust fund so why strive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Early childhood education is a specialized area of expertise just like Math/English/Science/History are.

I just disagree with this model.

It puts all the risk on the future early childhood educators. If the career works out, great. If you find out you don't enjoy teaching young kids as much as you thought, you're screwed because your education doesn't help you in any other way.

The school systems themselves should be able to train people with degrees in math, science, etc to be able to teach young children.

1st graders don't care if their teacher has an in depth knowledge of Calc 3. They care that their teacher knows how to lead circle time, gets their classmates to share, keeps them safe on the playground, knows when to schedule their potty breaks, knows when to refer them for special ed, knows how to teach them basic math and language arts, etc.

Teaching a HS kid AP BC Calc is a whole other ballgame.

Yeah I understand completely. I just think it's asking a lot for students to learn this all on their own before their first job offer and before they know for sure how much they like the career considering that the profession itself is not really high paid and the degree won't be good for much else if it doesn't work out.

That being said, how much of those things you said apply to 5th math in the OP's case?

5th grade is the tail end of EC. The kids still get bathroom breaks, recess, etc. A specialized 5th grade math teacher is going to have some combination of EC ed and math. Usually the teachers are not strictly math teachers in 5th grade, though. The teachers have a regular class and kids simply change classrooms to work on math. Teacher A may take all of the kids learning Pre algebra. Teacher B might take the kids who are working on exponents. Teacher C might take the kids who need extra help., etc.

I know - the whole premise here is a bit weird. 5th grade math teacher? I’ve heard of middle school math teacher but not someone who specializes in 5th grade math. Are you sure that your daughter is ok, OP?

Yeah, it sort of sounds like she's saying that she doesn't really want to specialize in math, doesn't really want to specialize in EC so she'll just do a light version of both majors. That is generally not the way that works though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite teacher- AP calc- was a former computer programmer. Best math teacher ever. And she opening told us she left a $250k+ job to teach HS math once her kids all were in school (5yo plus).

Maybe she knows she has a trust fund so why strive.

If she hated the stress of doing computer programming work in an office and loves teaching AP Calc to HS kids she made a great choice.

[Anonymous]

She sounds like she is ONE semester away from graduating with her math and Econ majors. And then tack in the masters in Edu or whatever her fifth year, correct? Shes not dropping her two stem majors when she is a couple classes shy of earning them plus a comprehensive exam??? Wtf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite teacher- AP calc- was a former computer programmer. Best math teacher ever. And she opening told us she left a $250k+ job to teach HS math once her kids all were in school (5yo plus).

Maybe she knows she has a trust fund so why strive.

If she hated the stress of doing computer programming work in an office and loves teaching AP Calc to HS kids she made a great choice.

She liked her programming job for 15 years and then her teaching the other 15 years. Very intelligent, positive woman who never put down difficult disciplines. Hope you don’t talk like that around your kids let alone a classroom of them.

One thing is for sure. If you never try you never really know. Think about all the nonsense and advice you’ve gotten from others to persuade you to give up or not try. Never be that person w regret of not trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She sounds like she is ONE semester away from graduating with her math and Econ majors. And then tack in the masters in Edu or whatever her fifth year, correct? Shes not dropping her two stem majors when she is a couple classes shy of earning them plus a comprehensive exam??? Wtf.

Agree. If she is just one semester from graduating with a dual STEM major there is something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite teacher- AP calc- was a former computer programmer. Best math teacher ever. And she opening told us she left a $250k+ job to teach HS math once her kids all were in school (5yo plus).

Maybe she knows she has a trust fund so why strive.

If she hated the stress of doing computer programming work in an office and loves teaching AP Calc to HS kids she made a great choice.

She liked her programming job for 15 years and then her teaching the other 15 years. Very intelligent, positive woman who never put down difficult disciplines. Hope you don’t talk like that around your kids let alone a classroom of them.

One thing is for sure. If you never try you never really know. Think about all the nonsense and advice you’ve gotten from others to persuade you to give up or not try. Never be that person w regret of not trying.

O.k. she loved both careers. That's great. She's the one who had to point out that she left a 250K job to go teach kids, though....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And I wish my parents would have given me more info on career options that come from different degrees

I'd guess lots of parents have no idea of the career options that come from different degrees.

That’s sad.

But kids can figure this out while in college if they keep their eyes and ears open, watch the older kids do recruiting or internship programs. There are whole sections of this and interview prep in the library.

[Anonymous]

I honestly have no idea what business grads do anyway. Apart from accounting, it is all foreign to me. Maybe your DD feels the same?