On 6/10/09, Well said! wrote:

>When I went back for my Masters degree, I
> heard so many younger students (at EMU) talking about being teachers.

One of the things that I think has happened in the past 10 years or so,
especially in Michigan, is the elimination of other options for college
students. Engineering, especially industrial engineering, used to be a
popular major. I remember friends in college going on about their internships
and the salaries earned by their supervisors (which they too would soon be
making after graduation). I was jealous.

Now, those friends have been unemployed for a year or more, or have to work in
Mexico (three college friends are down there right now, involuntarily), and/or
are worried they'll get a pink slip every day they go into work. Even the
financial and real estate sectors are drying up with the credit crunch and
housing bubble and all, so all these would be finance, engineering, or
business majors think about what might be a steady job, and they go into
education.

>they just had this
> entitlement minded attitude where they seemed to believe that you could do
> or be anything if you were just determined enough. That's partly true--
> you can become certified if you try hard enough--but getting a job depends
> on many other forces outside of you.

That, and the fact that many people who think they're trying really aren't. I
work in a suburban district, but you mentioned you are in an inner-city
environment. If you suggest Detroit or Ypsi to some of these people, they
respond that they'd never work there. Yeah, I know the inner city districts
aren't hiring elem ed either, but when you chip away at all the conditions
many elem teachers want, you find they aren't willing to leave their comfort
zone to get a job.

Up until this year, when everyone's economy blew up, there were options
outside of Michigan for elem ed or other glutted fields like HS English or
History. Vegas was hiring people over the phone with no face-face interview.
AZ, FL, and NC districts were coming up to MI and hiring at job fairs. NYC
was paying bonuses There were options, but some people only want a suburban
Detroit district within 20 miles of where they grew up or nothing else. Many
other fields require a move, or many moves throughout a career. Try
advertising, finance, or journalism! If you want to have a career in those
fields, you have to move several times. A friend with GMAC has moved 7 times
in the past 11 years and will probably move again before the end of the year.
Its the cost of a professional job...

In any event, what's happening in Michigan is heartbreaking. My dad did the
blue collar GM thing his whole life, as did many others in my family. Not an
uncommon story in SE Michigan. Still there comes a point when you're fighting
a fire that you have to get out of the house before it collapses around you.
I have a pretty stable, tenured job, so I'm here for awhile (though I'm
looking to build equity in a home elsewhere, because you can't do it in MI
anymore). If you're in a situation where you don't have a job, you aren't
getting one here and the old days aren't coming back to MI for at least a
couple more decades. Basically look at Pittsburgh in the 70s-90s to see
Detroit's present and future, and its not pretty. They're just starting to
get back to normalcy after the fall of the steel companies. My advice to the
young, newly minted teachers is to go elsewhere because your dream won't be
realized here.

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