3 ms·

How about teaching K-12? Plenty of districts are experiencing teacher shortages.

munin 11y ago
I've investigated that. Two problems: 1. Your PhD is not a credential that will get you a K-12 teaching job. You need a certificate that usually accompanies a Masters program in K-12 education. That's right, it's back to grad school to earn a MA alongside your PhD 2. The pay is bad. Really, really bad. And the places where teachers are needed is not where you want to live (or where anyone wants to live) and the conditions are not "ideal" and absolutely no one wants you there: not the other teachers, not the administration, not the community, not the parents, and not the students
- Turing_Machine 11y ago
  "The pay is bad. Really, really bad." No, it isn't, or at least not everywhere. At one time teacher salaries were, in fact horrible. Now they mostly range from "meh" to "pretty good". They vary a lot from state to state, and from district to district within states. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/15/how-much-teachers-get-paid-state-by-state/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/... By comparison, the median income for a person with any bachelor's degree is about $50,000. Most of the teacher salaries shown are right in that neighborhood. Teacher salaries do tend to be lower in places like (say) Mississippi than (say) California, but living in Mississippi is also a lot cheaper than living in California.
  - munin 11y ago
    > By comparison, the median income for a person with any bachelor's degree is about $50,000 Yes, but if you have a PhD, in a field like CS (which is what we were talking about), these numbers are crazy. Why would I take a job teaching Trigonometry in rural Spotsylvania county (which Google wants to spell check to Transylvania and let me tell you, it is not that wrong) making $50k a year when I could be living in not-rural-the-South making five times that writing Javascript for whoever? The suggestion of K-12 ed is so close to "adjunct" that it might as well be the same. The GP suggestion of doing K-12 ed with a PhD is still off the mark because you don't get a PhD because you want to lecture - you get it because you want to do research. The "teaching" that most PhDs value is mentoring junior researchers - you don't do this as an undergraduate lecturer, and you especially don't do this as an underpaid babysitter.
    - Turing_Machine 11y ago
      "The suggestion of K-12 ed is so close to "adjunct" that it might as well be the same." No, it is not. K-12 pays a lot more than adjunct wages, and almost always has good health and retirement benefits.
      - munin 11y ago
        Even if it did (which I don't think is true) you're still doing a radically different job with a radically different exit plan - as an adjunct, you have the sliver of hope that you can get out and get a job doing research. As a K-12 educator, you're never doing research again. You've effectively changed fields.
- dataminded 11y ago
  1. I don't believe this to be accurate in many states. In some states, you can access alternate route to certification programs that can put you in a classroom in as little as 2 months. There are organizations like Teach for America that will work to put you in a classroom. Lastly, some districts offer generous tuition reimbursement programs that can cover the full cost of tuition for that masters. 2. I guess bad is relative but if you wanted to make great money, why be an adjunct? I've spent most of my life in the northeast where teacher pay wasn't terrible. My wife taught in the inner city and she brought home a solid middle class paycheck in exchange for a day's work. Yes, things got tough sometimes. She also had the option of working summers, sports and after school programs for extra pay.

munin 11y ago

I've investigated that. Two problems: 1. Your PhD is not a credential that will get you a K-12 teaching job. You need a certificate that usually accompanies a Masters program in K-12 education. That's right, it's back to grad school to earn a MA alongside your PhD 2. The pay is bad. Really, really bad. And the places where teachers are needed is not where you want to live (or where anyone wants to live) and the conditions are not "ideal" and absolutely no one wants you there: not the other teachers, not the administration, not the community, not the parents, and not the students

Turing_Machine 11y ago
"The pay is bad. Really, really bad." No, it isn't, or at least not everywhere. At one time teacher salaries were, in fact horrible. Now they mostly range from "meh" to "pretty good". They vary a lot from state to state, and from district to district within states. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/15/how-much-teachers-get-paid-state-by-state/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/... By comparison, the median income for a person with any bachelor's degree is about $50,000. Most of the teacher salaries shown are right in that neighborhood. Teacher salaries do tend to be lower in places like (say) Mississippi than (say) California, but living in Mississippi is also a lot cheaper than living in California.
- munin 11y ago
  > By comparison, the median income for a person with any bachelor's degree is about $50,000 Yes, but if you have a PhD, in a field like CS (which is what we were talking about), these numbers are crazy. Why would I take a job teaching Trigonometry in rural Spotsylvania county (which Google wants to spell check to Transylvania and let me tell you, it is not that wrong) making $50k a year when I could be living in not-rural-the-South making five times that writing Javascript for whoever? The suggestion of K-12 ed is so close to "adjunct" that it might as well be the same. The GP suggestion of doing K-12 ed with a PhD is still off the mark because you don't get a PhD because you want to lecture - you get it because you want to do research. The "teaching" that most PhDs value is mentoring junior researchers - you don't do this as an undergraduate lecturer, and you especially don't do this as an underpaid babysitter.
  - Turing_Machine 11y ago
    "The suggestion of K-12 ed is so close to "adjunct" that it might as well be the same." No, it is not. K-12 pays a lot more than adjunct wages, and almost always has good health and retirement benefits.
    - munin 11y ago
      Even if it did (which I don't think is true) you're still doing a radically different job with a radically different exit plan - as an adjunct, you have the sliver of hope that you can get out and get a job doing research. As a K-12 educator, you're never doing research again. You've effectively changed fields.
dataminded 11y ago
1. I don't believe this to be accurate in many states. In some states, you can access alternate route to certification programs that can put you in a classroom in as little as 2 months. There are organizations like Teach for America that will work to put you in a classroom. Lastly, some districts offer generous tuition reimbursement programs that can cover the full cost of tuition for that masters. 2. I guess bad is relative but if you wanted to make great money, why be an adjunct? I've spent most of my life in the northeast where teacher pay wasn't terrible. My wife taught in the inner city and she brought home a solid middle class paycheck in exchange for a day's work. Yes, things got tough sometimes. She also had the option of working summers, sports and after school programs for extra pay.