Careers in education remain underappreciated

By: Meina Kaleyah

Posted: 7/3/09

Much of our childhoods have been spent in the classroom, our teachers serving as our surrogate parents. No one person devoted more time or energy in their schedule caring for us. Education is the foundation of society. Our early social, cultural and intellectual growth stems from our educational system. Teachers play a significant role in the maturation of children and young adults. The responsibilities of an educator are immeasurable - a teacher can leave a lifelong impression on a student's outlook on life and the pursuit of an education.

Do not be fooled by your adviser or even (for you freshman out there) your high school counselor when it comes to career consultation. During one of many student-counselor sessions in high school, I foolishly mentioned that I enjoyed math. It was only until a few hundred years ago that mathematics got the boot from its rightful place among the arts. My counselor jumped on this - "You like math?!" she exclaimed. "You should work with computers!" I ruminated over the possibilities, and I also did a little bit of research on the U.S. Labor Department's Web site. Computer programmers have the potential to earn criminal amounts of money with only a bachelor's degree; to me, my counselor had revealed to a me a delightful truth: pursue computer science, make sick amounts of cash, die happy.

After my first semester of computer science, I realized that this ambition is a distant shore away from my professional aspirations; although I pursued a Web development position in my co-op and even got hired at the place, I have always felt a sense of futility in the work I do. Such sentiments are intensified when given requests for such menial tasks as creating a "GO GREEN" graphic or a banner that simulates a sultry ocean wave beckoning patrons to a pricey corporate gala.

My recent co-op has revealed the corporate world to be a crucible of elusive jargon, sycophant drones, and paper-pushing - all the while being perpetually stirred by the ladle of fear and anxiety. Such an atmosphere is, quite literally, one of the last places I would care to be. Naturally, I have been reevaluating my career options. The suggestion of computer science stemmed from my love of math. Why was I not pushed to obtain a mathematics degree and share my love of the field with a generation of students? Why wasn't the engineering/programming path more emphasized? I had participated in a decent amount of community service in my high school years - one would assume I would garner more intrinsic value as an educator rather than as an engineer or a programmer.

Education spans beyond watching kindergartners finger paint. The quality of the academic experience holds heavy consequences. It is evident that the U.S. trails significantly behind other industrialized and some non-industrialized countries scholastically. Recent economic crises alone can be directly linked back to an America corrupted and compromised by banks and insurers alike because of a lack of knowledge and financial competency. According to a recent report conducted by the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, approximately 52.2 percent of working-aged residents of Philadelphia lack basic literacy skills. This is a mere microcosm of the education issues we face today, and not as children but instead as adults.

As an educator, there is the opportunity to ameliorate similar circumstances for those in need at any age. At the administrative level, those in the education system can dictate where money is allocated and can affect the performance of an entire student body. A career in academia can be extremely rewarding; not only do College of Arts and Sciences undergrads get a break when it comes to employment, but the corporate tedium is near-absent. Certainly, there are other politics involved, but incarceration within a nondescript cubicle is a threat far and away.

The occupation of a teacher is an advocate for the individual. From early childhood to adolescence and into adulthood, a reputable education enhances and illuminates self-identification of the individual, as well as their role in their local community and society. Thomas Jefferson said it best, "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Whenever … things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." By pursuing a career in education, one has the opportunity to mold individuals into such a "well-informed" populace and evade the banality of corporate life.

Meina Kaleyah is a pre-junior majoring in Mathematics. She can be reached at op-ed@thetriangle.org