Education
Do you dream of shaping young minds and preparing children for their
future? Perhaps you envision classrooms full of eager students, sitting at
rapt attention, putting your vast knowledge to practical use. While you may
realize these dreams if you choose a career in teaching, you will also
typically deal with tremendous amounts of paperwork and cope with
misbehaving—or even violent—students. Other teachers have to deal with
adults who have no study skills and no time to learn them.
And summer vacations, which used to be the biggest perquisite for
educators, are becoming increasingly rare in many settings. As continuing
education requirements for teachers get more stringent, you may be forced
to spend your summers at professional training workshops. Not to mention
the fact that you may be compelled to get a summer job, in order to make
ends meet on your salary.
Whether you're a schoolteacher, a special education teacher, an adult
vocational-education trainer, or a college professor, your career as an
educator may comprise all these things and more. So, before embarking on a
career in education, you should weigh the pros and cons and decide if the
many rewards are worth the trouble.
(Note: This career profile focuses on careers for teachers, professors, and
instructors. In addition to those folks, though, there are all kinds of
support and administrative personnel—elementary and high school principals,
guidance counselors, college deans, and so on. As you read this career
profile, be aware that there are other opportunities in education beyond
those on the front lines. And be aware that today, there are opportunities
for teachers and administrative types alike in an ever-wider variety of
organizations. These days, you might want to expand your study of education
careers beyond traditional in-school opportunities to include organizations
like nonprofit educational outreach community groups, educational
publishing and software companies, corporate training departments and
companies, and online educational institutions like the University of
Phoenix.)
What You'll Do
Educators can work with people of all ages, from toddlers in nursery school
to senior citizens in continuing education programs. They work with people
from all economic backgrounds, from the inner city and rural children who
don't get enough nutritious food to eat, to wealthy CEOs trying to cope
with laying off employees.
They can work in many different settings, from well-appointed private
boarding schools to dilapidated community centers. And, of course, they
teach many different subjects, from English as a second language to quantum
physics.
Educators include teachers, instructors, and trainers. Teachers may teach
children or adults in public schools, private schools, vocational or
technical schools, colleges or universities, or special-education programs.
Trainers may work with a company's human resources department to orient
new employees and keep all employees' skills up to date. They may also
lead vocational training programs sponsored by the government, by private
nonprofits, or by for-profit businesses.
Who Does Well
To be effective, educators must be able to forge a connection with their
students. In other words, they must be able to gain rapport with others
easily. They must be patient in order to teach students who have difficulty
understanding. They need to be sensitive and empathetic. They need to be
able to understand individual students' needs, and make decisions about
them. They need to possess expertise in the subject they're teaching,
and the drive to stay on top of new developments in that subject throughout
their career. And, if they don't want to burn out, they must have a
love of learning and the desire and ability to convey their enthusiasm to
students.
People who have these qualities and are able to deal with the challenges of
a career in education will reap many rewards. Education can be an immensely
fulfilling vocation. Educators teach children the skills and knowledge
they'll need to continue their education or succeed in the post-school
world. They teach adults the skills necessary to succeed, often helping
them turn their lives around.
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Educators must have either a college degree or significant experience and
certification in their fields of expertise. Schoolteachers, including
special education teachers, must hold a bachelor's degree. To teach in
a public school, you'll also need a teaching license, which requires
the completion of a teacher-training program and usually a student-teaching
internship. To teach in a specific state, you'll need a teaching
license issued by that state. Schoolteachers usually major in the subject
they wish to teach, and take education courses to obtain teaching
credentials, or else they major in education and take extra courses in
their area of specialization.
Special education teachers are usually trained in a related field, such as
hearing impairment or learning disabilities, and must have a bachelor's
degree and a teaching credential. States that have trouble attracting new
teachers may offer alternative or emergency credentials that don't have
as many stringent requirements as traditional licenses. Private
schoolteachers are not necessarily required to hold licenses.
Adult education teachers must have experience in their field and some may
need a license or certification. Those who teach basic education may be
required to hold a bachelor's degree in education. Corporate trainers
often have a degree in training or in human resources and enter the
training field through a company's human resources department.
At universities and colleges, most tenure-track positions require a
professor to hold a PhD, or to be a PhD candidate. In some fields, such as
the arts, a master's degree may be sufficient. Two-year institutions
often find a master's degree adequate, but may give preference to an
instructor with a PhD.
In addition to these requirements and those discussed previously, all
teachers and professors must be experts in their field and possess
exceptional communication skills. They should be able to form a rapport
with their students and be supportive and understanding.
Possibilities
Many teachers change careers. Their skills usually qualify them for
positions where communication skills are important. Marketing, writing, and
research careers are all options. Many corporations hire teachers to train
employees within their HR departments. Science and math teachers can also
find careers in science at a variety of companies. Other teachers can apply
their specialties to industry or in the public sector as well; political
science professors, for instance, can often find employment in government,
working on policy issues.
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The good news is that the number of available jobs will continue to rise
over the next decade, even though school enrollment will slow. The Bureau
of Labor Statistics predicts that opportunities for preschool and K-12
teachers will be good to excellent in coming years. With the Baby Boomer
teachers reaching retirement age, and a large number of teaching positions
with higher-than-average turnover rates, there should be many openings for
already existing education positions.
Available jobs abound in inner cities and rural areas, where school
districts have traditionally had trouble attracting and retaining teachers
(due to lower pay and more difficult work conditions). Opportunities will
continue to grow in states experiencing rapid population growth, such as
Texas, California, Idaho, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, and Hawaii. If you are
geographically flexible, you will have a significant advantage when
searching for a position.
Many schools today are looking for teachers with specific subject
expertise, especially in math, science, and foreign languages. Special
education teachers, ESL teachers, and vocational-education teachers should
also enjoy especially strong growth in job opportunities. On the other
hand, there are significantly fewer jobs available at the elementary level,
and for social studies or physical education teachers.
More and more adults are taking courses paid for by their employers, and
the number of adults enrolling in personal-enrichment courses is also
increasing, meaning an increase in opportunities for adult- and
continuing-ed teachers. In affluent areas especially, tutors and test-prep
instructors should also enjoy increasing opportunities.
There should be an increase in college and university faculty opportunities
as well, but competition for those jobs will be intense, particularly for
tenure-track positions. And as colleges and universities face increasing
budget constraints, more and more teaching positions will go to contract
workers.
And on to the bad news: In the near term, governments—from the federal
level on down to the cities and towns—are facing massive budget shortages.
This has meant larger class sizes and layoffs or hiring freezes in many
school districts and at many public educational institutions.
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Elementary and Secondary Schoolteachers
Schoolteachers introduce children to the basics of what they need to know
to enter the world of work or to pursue a higher education. Whether they
work in public or private schools, they also try to instill in their
students a lifelong love of learning for learning's sake.
In the United States, elementary school generally includes kindergarten
through sixth grade. Usually, at the elementary level, the teacher is
responsible for delivering instruction on multiple subjects to one class of
children who are the same age, but some instructors teach only one subject,
such as music, to several classes of children in different grades.
Elementary-school students are educated in language arts, social studies,
math, science, physical education, art, and music.
Secondary school includes middle school through high school. Secondary
schoolteachers give students more specialized education in many of the same
subjects as elementary schoolteachers. A secondary-school educator usually
teaches one subject to several classes of students who may or may not be
the same age. For example, a language arts teacher may teach classes in
English literature, composition, and Shakespeare. Secondary schools usually
offer vocational classes in such subjects as auto mechanics, typing, or
marketing.
In addition to classroom teaching, elementary and secondary schoolteachers
prepare lesson plans and report cards, maintain discipline in the
classroom, grade assignments and tests, monitor students' progress and
adjust plans accordingly, meet with administrators and parents, serve on
committees or as mentors, and perform many other tasks.
Schoolteachers must get along well with children. They must be vigilant,
keeping an eye out for potential problems in a student's personal life.
They must keep up with educational advancements and new teaching ideas and
technologies. When students act up in class, the teacher must be able to
take control and restore order. Schoolteachers must also be able to
interact with parents and administrators.
Special Education Teachers
Special education teachers teach in elementary and secondary schools. They
may work in public or private schools. Special ed teachers teach children
who may have learning disabilities, speech impairments, mental retardation,
emotional development disabilities, hearing and visual impairments, brain
injury, or other disabilities.
Special ed teachers may teach in tandem with a general-education teacher.
They may work in a resource room where children go for part of the school
day. They help students learn social behaviors and life skills to prepare
for life after graduation. Special ed teachers work closely with a
student's parents and counselors to develop an appropriate curriculum
for each child. They also help to identify children in general-education
classes who would be better off in special education.
Special education teachers must be especially patient and tolerant. They
must be sensitive to their students' special needs in order to give
them the education they deserve. Special education is challenging and may
take its toll emotionally, but it can also be extremely rewarding, because
instructors can have such a big influence on a child's life.
Adult Education Teachers and Trainers
Adult education includes continuing education courses that adults take for
personal enrichment, career-development courses they take to learn new
skills or update old ones, training programs for business, and vocational
courses for high school graduates who wish to pursue careers that don't
require college degrees.
Adult education teachers may work in a college's continuing education
department, in an institution devoted to vocational or career training, or
at a business office. They usually have life and career experience in the
subject they teach. For instance, an experienced hairstylist could teach at
a cosmetology school, or someone with specialized computer skills could
teach other adults how to use a certain computer program.
Those who teach in a corporate setting are often human resources
professionals, but sometimes they are outside consultants with experience
in a particular field. They plan training programs and curricula, teach
relevant skills to new employees, keep all employees up to date on new
technologies, and lead workshops on subjects such as the prevention of
sexual harassment, safety in the workplace, and meeting facilitation.
Educators who teach adults usually find that their students are eager to
learn. Most often they enroll voluntarily, while schoolchildren are often
forced to learn against their will. Adult education teachers have the
satisfaction of imparting skills to others that will help them bolster
their careers, earn them more money, or allow them to gain personal
pleasure through learning new things.
On the other hand, adult students may lack necessary study skills. They may
be too busy with their jobs to devote sufficient time to coursework. Adults
who need basic education, such as literacy education or training for the
GED, may be too embarrassed to seek help, or lack confidence in their
abilities.
College and University Faculty
College and university faculty members usually work as lecturers,
instructors, assistant professors, and full professors. All of these job
titles involve "tenure track" positions, jobs that lead to
professorships and tenure. Tenure means a professor may not be fired
without good reason or due process. It exists in order to preserve academic
freedom for professors, ensuring that they will not be fired for espousing
controversial opinions. There are also part-time instructors, known as
adjunct faculty members, who are usually not eligible for tenure.
College and university faculty teach at two-year and four-year institutions
of higher learning. They teach students who have high school degrees or
degree equivalents. They have at least a master's degree, and most hold
a PhD.
They teach undergraduate and graduate students, and most teach more than
one course. They also supervise assistant instructors, grade papers,
prepare lessons, and advise students. Some hold administrative jobs, in
which case their teaching workload is lighter.
In addition to duties related to teaching, college and university faculty
members are under great pressure to conduct original research and publish
their findings. The phrase "publish or perish" originated in
academia. Many schools require professors to publish significant original
research in order to be granted tenure. Professors are often conflicted
over the demands of teaching and the obligation to research and publish.
However, most college and university faculty members have a great love of
learning and genuinely enjoy doing research.
Professors and instructors in colleges and universities get to express
their theories and demonstrate their expertise to others. They help young
people discover their callings in life. Teaching often helps them focus
their own knowledge. They have fairly flexible schedules and quite a bit of
free time. They are free to devote as much or as little time as they please
to course preparation outside of their classes.
Downsides to this career include an increasing reliance on part-time
faculty, which means fewer tenure-track positions, and the ever-present
struggles with administrative officials over policies and financial
matters.
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Compensation for educators varies by the position held, the educator's
level of experience, the kind of educational institution the educator works
for (public and private school compensation can differ quite a bit, for
instance, as can compensation at, say, a state college and an Ivy League
school), geographic location, and, at the college and university level, the
subject the educator teaches.
At the higher education level, professors in economics, business
administration, engineering, accounting, and the hard sciences tend to make
more than their counterparts in areas like the social sciences and the
arts.
Following are some sample salary ranges for educators:
-
Elementary or secondary teacher: $37,000 to $55,000
-
Professor: $55,000 to $150,000 or more
-
Associate professor: $44,000 to $109,000
-
Assistant professor: $39,000 to $91,000
-
Special ed teacher: $34,000 to $55,000
-
Adult literacy, GED, or remedial education teacher or instructor:
$12/hour to $45/hour
Note that many teachers are unionized. In general, this results in higher
pay than non-union teachers get.