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When I was in college several of my friends majored in early childhood education. Without a doubt it has to be the easiest major out there. While I was writing
by learc83 15y ago
When I was in college several of my friends majored in early childhood education.
Without a doubt it has to be the easiest major out there. While I was writing papers, my friends were learning how to make name tags with construction paper and crayons, and learning kiddy songs (this is not an exaggeration).
The problem is that once you get the degree and jump through the hoops, you're in. That's all there is to it
If any idiot can become a teacher, and a bad teacher makes the same a great teacher, then the pay is going to end up as the average of what you'd pay a bad teacher and great one.
Side-note: my mom, who also has a degree in early childhood education, tells me that when she was there 30 years ago it was much more academically rigorous.
- sliverstorm 15y agoI gather it depends on how you're entering the field. My mother studies early childhood development with a focus on how it can go wrong (I forget the technical term, but things like severe autism) It doesn't seem to be a 'hard' science, but it's still a science. As such, there's no glitter and construction paper involved, except when they are interacting with the children!
- learc83 15y agoI think that vast majority of aspiring elementary teachers are not going to pursue a degree focusing on developmental disorders.
- sliverstorm 15y agoCertainly. I actually kind agree with your original point, from what I've seen of education majors. I took an education class in college, aced it and got rave reviews on my papers, and I barely even tried. Made me a little concerned about my fellow students in the course.
- miked 15y agoI went to grad school on CS for a year, focusing on AI. I then realized that I was more interested in improving reasoning in people rather than machines, so I switched to Ed. Psych. I can still recall my astonishment at how much lower the quality of grad students in the education school was. A very few bright ones and a whole lot of "dumm". One anecdote: I was focusing for a while on better ways to teach algebra word problems. I put up some examples and not one education grad student, or the professor, could solve even one of them. I'm talking about stuff like "a boat goes 5 miles in an hour against the current and ..." Nada.