Teacup Café XXXI

[katya]

I'm 20 now and I never thought I'd be where I am. I wouldn't have thought I'd still be at the same college, and I expected to be a little bit more innocent and keeping a little better company. But, I think things worked out more or less for the best. And, at 20 1/2, I'm pretty much how I would have expected- taking classes in philosophy and psychology and studying (very hard) to be a teacher.

[shesabrandybuck]

Thats so awesome. I know a lot of things are going to change by the time I am 20, I just hope I dont change my mind about what I want to major in and things like that. It probably will, idk, maybe not, I am pretty set on nursing. I would very much like to become a Nurse Practitioner. Then after college be on my way to Italy and find some Roman Romeo ♥

[katya]

That was kind of my dream too, finding my husband in Italy. Only I was going to marry the "boss" and have a strong son who will help protect me and the household, and I'll make pizza and spaghetti for them when they come home. But... that was kind of a joke.

It's not too terrible if you change your mind about a major depending on how many classes you take that directly go toward it. I have always said I want to be a teacher but I've changed subjects a lot. I took a lot of liberal studies stuff first though so it didn't matter much. Nursing is another thing like teaching though- it's pretty much a track to one specific career. Which is great if that's what you really want to do.

[shesabrandybuck]

I think that it is what I pretty much want to do. I would love to teach, but I dont have a clue as to what I would teach... Im not really good at anything.



I dont know, I have always had this vision of getting married at the Borgehese Gallery in Rome, then getting an adorable flat in Trastevere. That is my ultimate dream. But its close to impossible cause I would have to get really rich, really fast

[katya]

The thing about teaching is that I think you have to really want it and have kind of a knack for it, because you don't get paid much of anything, especially considering the schooling you need, and you don't get very much respect either. You have to rely on the spiritual rewards.

That sounds like a good dream. First I'm going to need money to get to Rome. And then find a rich boyfriend. Actually, I think I'll just take my current one. We will have a farm and stuff. Hmm...

[Mari]

Teaching isn't that underpaid, is it? Here teaching might not earn you the most respect from your students, but it is a good job. Plus you get a lot of vacation time.
I like teaching adults, but children... no way. Been there, done that.

I never knew what I wanted to do and I still don't know exactly, though I have a pretty good idea, but it might change again. It has before, so...

Link, just keep holding on to your dream, but don't clamp to it 'because it is what you always said you wanted' rather than what it is you want now. You'll be just fine that way

[katya]

I've been finding in my class I'm taking now that teachers really don't get paid very much compared to how hard/important the job is and the degree you need for it. It's not just students that don't respect you either, people tend to think that teaching is really easy and that teachers don't work very hard. And various other things. Whenever I tell my parents and relatives I want to be a teacher they say "Why would you do that when you can do anything you want? You should aim higher."

[Midge]

I don't know how much teachers are paid there, but generally (I think), teachers in the U.S. get paid only enough to be in the lower-middle-class or upper-lower-class (depending on the school, probably). It's hard to say an exact amount because of the widely differing economies spread across the U.S. Here, in the midwest, they generally get around $30,000 dollars a year.

[Mari]

I have several teaching relatives and their lifestyles are exactly as ours. Average I guess.
They just got a raise nation-wide.

[katya]

Oh, and about vacation time. There is a lot of vacation, which is nice, but teachers also seem to work a lot. Most teachers were saying that including outside of class (grading papers and preparing) they worked something like 60 hours a week.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Private school teaching is a better thing.

[Mari]

My uncle keeps trying to get us to become teachers, because according to him and my cousin it's the best job ever.

I'm watching Independence Day from my bed... wanna take a bet on how long I'm going to be able to stay awake?

[katya]

Yeah Sis, I wanna teach in an elite private school, but at the same time, I watch videos of poor inner city schools where the kids don't even have a regular teacher sometimes and I want to go and help. I feel like it's my duty or something. But, like I've said in class, I think it's also important to do what you are best suited for, and inner city schools are not made for this cat.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

I yield to none in my admiration for great teachers.

But I think a lot of the process to 'certify' techers is a complete racket.

[katya]

Indeed. The politics of education all around is... worrisome to me, to say the least. What particularly do you not agree with as far as certification?

[Willow Oran]

The vacation time really gets eaten up quickly with prep-work and classroom up keep. Especially for older teachers. My mother is always saying how the younger teachers do as much as they can during their contract hours and then get out of there while the older teachers end up working massive amounts of usually unpaid overtime. And no pay however good could make up for relics of educational experiments like inner city, open-concept schools. All of the Seattle south-end schools lack walls between the classrooms so not only do you have one teacher to 24-30 students, you have three classes of that size in one large room.

[Mari]

What? No walls? Huh!?

[katya]

It's true, Mari, I've heard about and seen numerous examples of school that were literally falling apart. Part of the reason is that schools are funded by property taxes, and in cheap areas schools don't get funded well. It ends up being kind a vicious cycle of kids not having a good school/education, dropping out and not getting a good future, and continuing to live in these slums. One of the movies we watched on schools in Ohio made me and half the class cry by the time it was over. It was literally raining inside, and their encyclopedias talked about how neat it would be if someday we made it to the moon.

[Mari]

That really is sad, but I thought actually that Willow meant that the schools had no walls because of some educational experiment. Like: "kids shouldn't be in narrow rooms because that disturbs their creativity, so lets not build walls inside the building" sort of nonsense.
(My apologies to people who really believe in that sort of thing for sounding sarcastic)

[Midge]

No offense taken, Mari...

As a matter of fact, I am glad that my school had walls. And I am sort of all for home-schooling. Responsible home-schooling. The kind where you make sure to take your kids somewhere regularly (like the park or the YMCA or something) where they can have regular contact with other children their ages many times a week to develop their social skills.. and you're allowed to teach them things from a certain worldview, but you make sure to include things that aren't necessarily supported in that worldview simply for the fact that they exist.

Like if I were to homeschool my kids, they would be learning creationism, but I would be teaching them the theory of evolution because it does exist, and they should know about it. Better for them to be better prepared than caught off guard.

Oh, and PRINCESS VARNA! It's your turn to post a question in the Narnia Trivia Thread!!!

*hint hint* To newcomers who drool over C.S. Lewis.. there's an entire sub-forum devoted to him which needs perusers!