noko

[Anonymous No.6872355]

/sci/

Want your opinion on something. I'm studying economics at a top five school in the US. I have a ton of options open to me in terms of banking, consulting, etc. But they don't interest me at all. I want to go into teaching, specifically in urban schools.

I feel, weird. Going into something with low pay and low prestige with all of these other incredible opportunities out there for me. I know this is completely based in emotion, but I'm worried people are going to think less of me for doing it. Has anyone else done something similar? What happened?

[Anonymous No.6872396]

>>6872355
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

the kids are going to fucking walk right over you and completely break your spirit within a month, you are going to struggle to get through your first year of work, move halfway across the country to a 99% white suburb and beg for a private school teaching job or a job in the local school district

this happens to every single fucking head in the clouds rich white kid who gets his perceptions of the ghetto secondhand and tries to do this shit, the only teachers who can handle it in that type of environment are the ones who were exposed to it themselves growing up and got out of it and overcame the odds anyway and know what they are doing, clueless white kids like you get fucking chewed up and spit out in no time

teaching at a ghetto school is one of the worst tasks ever, it's like doing charity for people who not only do not want your charity they want more than anything for you to stop giving it to them and will do anything in their power to interfere with it and stop you from teaching them

I don't know if you're rich, I don't even know if you're white but to get into a top 5 school you are probably at least white and middle class, you are fucking clueless, you do not have what it takes. sure it sounds like a nice admirable goal and all to you now, in your ivory tower surrounded by rich, extremely intelligent, overwhelmingly white and asian pricks but from your first day of stepping foot in a classroom full of shrieking disorderly anti-intellectual yahoos you will realize you have made a mistake.


If you want to teach, don't be a fucking retard, get a masters in teaching or some kind of teaching certifications and find a job at a nice private or upper middle class white school that will pay you a good salary where you will be teaching civilized children with some level of discipline and acceptable behavior who at least have parents who care about forcing them to learn.

[Anonymous No.6872455]

>>6872355
Do you enjoy teaching?

I don't mean the idea of being a teacher, I mean the actual raw act of teaching? Have you ever sat down with a 16 year old who can't multiply - and who is never going to be able to multiply - and tried to get him through his "workplace mathematics" knowing that you'll never accomplish the actual goal of imparting knowledge and just hoping you'll be able to come out the other end with his self esteem in tact? Have you ever tried to out-stubborn an spoiled rotten 12-year-old girl who will never see you as anything but an obstacle to her free time? Have you ever spent an hour lecturing, feeling like everything's flowing perfectly and you're hitting all the right notes, only to realize you failed to account for an obvious over generalization in the second minutes and the entire classroom has been hopelessly lost ever since?

You don't get to herioically overcome these problems, like a character in a movie. Things don't get magically better after a montage. This is the day-to-day reality of teaching *in a middle class school*, and you need to love it for what it is. Can you say, for sure, that you will?

[Anonymous No.6872469]

>>6872355
You should go do it for a year or two. When you get bored of it your next employers will eat that social empathy shit up like candy.

[Anonymous No.6872554]

>>6872355
It's not that anyone will think less of you for teaching that is the important point.

>>6872396
is essentially correct. Have you ever been to a high school in the ghetto? I'm gonna assume you're young, white, and middle class. Those kids are gonna see you as a bitch, basically, even moreso if you're a woman.

Get ready to have the race card pulled out on you as an excuse to diss on you and get ready to get threatened with a knife.

Those kids won't give a shit about you. How the hell do you expect to solve all of their problems? Give them the freakonomics explanation for why it was an optimal choice move for their dads to run out on them?

If you really want to teach, go teach at some kind of magnet high school on one of the coasts where you'll just be dealing with timid workaholic asians, or at a private school in new england like choate or exeter where kids will actually push you to the limits of your knowledge and at worst try to bribe you to not fail them (in rare cases)

[Anonymous No.6872567]

>>6872554
P.S. if you want to make big bribery bucks, go teach at a swiss boarding school like le rosey

[Anonymous No.6872627]

OP here.

Yeah I forgot to include relevant background information. I have done a lot of work in low income communities with regards to education. I spent last summer teaching in a low income area (95% black) for six weeks. So to answer 6872455's point, yes I do enjoy teaching. I remember having to sit down with a sixth grader to explain why 3/4 is larger than 1/2 and she argued with me five ways from Sunday until the light bulb went off. So yes I do enjoy teaching. I also know the long hours that go into teaching with regards to lesson planning and the feeling of having a lesson go completely wrong and waste a day of learning.

>>6872396
You need to chill out man. I would only do this if being accepted into a masters program in urban teaching that combines class and field work. You seem to be describing a typical Teach For America member that believes they can waltz into a school and solve everything. I am not that idealistic and recognize that teaching is hard and most students don't even want to be there. Please don't assume I am so ignorant.

>6872554
I was accused of being a racist by one of my students during my summer teaching. You just laugh at them and move on. The administration and the parents knew me at that point and the student was just trying to get a reaction out of me.

[Anonymous No.6872637]

>>6872627
Gotta appreciate all the love for education. Thanks for the posts guys.

[Anonymous No.6872673]

>>6872627
Well then sure; go for it.

Yes, you'll disappoint people. Early-life achievers are always disappointments because the people who set up their expectations for them are routinely idiotic.

Social expectations are fucked up, and people in the 50th percentile (parents, elementary educators) have no conception of the prospects of the 99t percentile. "Top of the grade level" in comparison to 100 grade 4 students is seen as "the smartest person" and not as "one of 3 million equally able Americans". That's million and millions of kids told they're going to grow up to cure cancer or "be the next Bill Gates" when they're almost certainly just going to be another set of shmucks. Part of *actuallly* growing up intelligent is realizing how retarded the expectations that were built into your eight year old self are, and building an identity that works for you.

[Anonymous No.6872684]

>>6872627
alright, that makes sense then. just making sure you knew what you were getting into.

if you really, really want to work in an inner city school, then the younger, the better. By the time kids are in high school, they're already nearly impossible to convince.

>You just laugh at them and move on. The administration and the parents knew me at that point and the student was just trying to get a reaction out of me.

That wasn't what I was referring to; the race card is just an excuse thats used to justify ignoring you (or worse) if the entire class is already against you. Think of it as the spark that enables a fire. The only way to avoid it is to make sure you aren't the most hated person in the room, which is an uphill battle if you're teaching something dry like math or economics and none of the kids want to be there.

but i mean, godspeed, if you already know what you're getting into

[Anonymous No.6872689]

Fuck expectations of others, its your life do what you want. I can't tell you the number of times my mother has tried to convince me to go into the medical field even though I have no interest in it

[Anonymous No.6872694]

>>6872684
To add more:

By the time high school rolls around, you're playing with fire unless you know how to navigate the complicated social boundaries. Depending on where you teach, gang divisions might be something you have to watch out for and either turn a blind eye to, or try to resolve. Kids are going to have surprisingly mature problems because adulthood is thrust upon them earlier than in well-to-do neighborhoods where parents can afford to keep their children isolated from the real world until they're 18-22.

[Anonymous No.6872773]

>>6872684
>>6872694
I plan on teaching middle school if possible. They are, as you said, young and slightly more open to change. They are also down to be silly and have fun in ways that high schoolers aren't. I did a skit with my students about superheroes going to college, something I don't think I could do with high schoolers.

[Anonymous No.6873078]

>>6872355
Thank you OP. Knowing that there's more to life than just money really makes me feel better. I'm actually an EE major, and my parents have been trying so hard to convince me to get into a career in I-Banking. It's similar with my college adviser, and everyone in my engineering class is really just doing EE because someone told them engineers have an easier time breaking into IB. When I made it clear to my parents I didn't want to, they started pushing me to start programming on my own because they probably heard of software developers at Google making 300k or something. Fuck, I just want to work at SpaceX and make history doing something I enjoy.