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> or have strong math backgrounds in general. Makes sense given that most people with strong math abilities can make much more money doing something that's not
by ken 7y ago
> or have strong math backgrounds in general. Makes sense given that most people with strong math abilities can make much more money doing something that's not teaching.
That argument supposes that high school teachers ended up with that career by looking at all job prospects and picking the one with the best economic prospects. Based on my experience, exactly none of them did that, in any field. My sophomore English teacher used to work at an aerospace company, and my biology teacher studied to be a physician, for example.
> Most great high school math teachers are doing it for pretty pure reasons. Admirable, but hard to expect from rational people.
Exactly so. Until we can reliably identify success in a field (like football wins), and then make the economic incentives align to promote that success, we can't hope to increase the number of great people in a field by economic metrics.
- majos 7y ago> That argument supposes that high school teachers ended up with that career by looking at all job prospects and picking the one with the best economic prospects. Not really. I'm supposing that people choose careers based on some combination of "I like this" and "I like how this pays me". Someone who can complete a good undergrad math program can probably make six figures as a software developer after a few years. They'd have to really like teaching, or hate software development, for teaching to provide more total utility.
- sturgill 7y agoMy dream is to be independently wealthy and become a high school math teacher. I love math, I enjoy teaching, and I’m pretty good at it (I spend a good deal of time tutoring various youth in our church group). Why am I not a math teacher? Because I make 5x what a teacher makes. And I don’t want to raise three kids on a teacher’s salary. But I dream of being a teacher. Help kids out for nine months and spend three months hiking and camping with the family. But until then, I’ll just make a very comfortable living doing quant marketing and building out Bayesian models... I enjoy my work enough that the opportunity cost is not worth the forgone revenue to teach. Not yet, any way...
- sethammons 7y agoThe problem with a metric akin to football wins is that you can be cut from the football team. Required high school math classes don't have the option to remove poor performers. Worse, they seldom can remove disruptive students.