Money Magazine’s November issue includes their list of the Best Jobs in America. But where are the teachers??? Are we doing enough to prepare kids for science and math careers? And what can I do to get kids excited about jobs like Systems Engineer (#1), Certified Public Accountant (#6), Corporate Paralegal (#36) and Outside Sales Rep (#50)?
In fact, there were several points that caught my Aim High eye. (It’s also worth mentioning that these kinds of studies aren’t terribly scientific; more on that later.)
1: Nearly half of the jobs on the list are STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) jobs. By my count, 45 of the 100 jobs on the list would require a degree in an area of science or math, while another 15 or so are business jobs in a STEM field (like Information Technology), where a technical background is a great asset. This isn’t news – we’ve known for years that our economy is increasingly driven by information and technology – but it’s a worthwhile reminder. Helping students to master and love science and math is an urgent priority for educators, and with schools finding it difficult to attract science and math experts to teach – especially in struggling urban schools – the task falls all the more urgently to programs like Aim High.
2: The list is completely dominated by titles like Director, Manager, and Engineer, and by jobs that I would guess require a 4-year degree, if not a Master’s degree. This brings up two points that are very relevant to Aim High – first, that it is incredibly important to encourage our students to dream not only of going to college but of applying to competitive 4-year colleges and pursuing advanced degrees; and second, that a lot of these jobs require great academic and personal confidence. Developing confidence and leadership in our youth is as important to their lifelong success as any academic benchmark.
3: It can be hard to get kids excited about careers beyond the narrow set of jobs they may encounter in the media and in their communties. When I worked in a low-income school with 6th graders, I would ask kids what they wanted to be when they graduated high school, and the most frequent answers were singer/rapper, professional athlete, and hairdresser. Shortly after joining the Aim High team, I visited an Issues and Choices class where students were drawing sketches of their future selves. “What are you in your picture?” I asked the students, “what do you want to be after college?” The answers: Microbiologist. Neuroscientist. Pharmacist. Stuff the middle schoolers at my old school had never heard of. I have no idea whether this Aim High site was incredibly successful at inspiring students to highly educated STEM careers or if these kids hailed from a community with a very different set of dreams and priorities, but either way, I was impressed. Organization-wide, Aim High sites are a “college-going culture,” and our Issues and Choices classes incorporate a thread of college and career awareness so kids are well-prepared to plan for the careers of their dreams.
4: Teacher did not make the list – not even the “benefit to society” list! The measurement for this list is “% who think their job makes the world a better place,” and it is dominated by medical professions: 6 of the top 10 are medical, or 7 if you count veterinarians. I am admittedly biased, but I think that helping young people to become confident, fulfilled, well-rounded, and engaged adults is far more critical and impactful than helping pets be healthy. I love pets and vets, I really do, but teaching is on a whole different level of life-changing, world-changing work. It seems that either 1) an astonishing number of teachers do not believe that they are making the world better or 2) teachers did not participate in this survey, and I’m hoping it’s the latter. As a program that helps many young adults develop as teachers, Aim High aims to instill a lifelong passion for urban education; my completely unscientific guess is that 99% of Aim High teachers would say that they are making the world a better place. (Given the criticism currently circulating the healthcare and finance industries, I also wonder how many Securities Traders – #33 – and Pharmaceuticals Sales Reps -#44 – feel they are making the world better. Just curious.)
5: That brings us to my final point: It’s really hard to tell how they determined this list. For one thing, it’s impossible to see how things are weighted and who was surveyed. I am reminded of the time I looked in a college guidebook and discovered that my sister’s engineering college was listed as a top school for musical theater; it turns out that the publisher’s data was drawn from an email survey that happened to be circulated heavily among the school’s small and rather casual theater club. The “best jobs” data is, I imagine, skewed by similar circumstances.
One last thing: I am pleased to report that my job (Director of Communications) is #31 on the list and #4 on the “Most Flexible” list. Booyah! To that, I would add that Aim High is a delightful place to work. 🙂
Money Magazine’s November issue includes their list of the Best Jobs in America. But where are the teachers??? Are we doing enough to prepare kids for science and math careers? And what can I do to get kids excited about jobs like Systems Engineer (#1), Certified Public Accountant (#6), Corporate Paralegal (#36) and Outside Sales Rep (#50)?
In fact, there were several points that caught my Aim High eye. (It’s also worth mentioning that these kinds of studies aren’t terribly scientific; more on that later.)
1: Nearly half of the jobs on the list are STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) jobs. By my count, 45 of the 100 jobs on the list would require a degree in an area of science or math, while another 15 or so are business jobs in a STEM field (like Information Technology), where a technical background is a great asset. This isn’t news – we’ve known for years that our economy is increasingly driven by information and technology – but it’s a worthwhile reminder. Helping students to master and love science and math is an urgent priority for educators, and with schools finding it difficult to attract science and math experts to teach – especially in struggling urban schools – the task falls all the more urgently to programs like Aim High.
2: The list is completely dominated by titles like Director, Manager, and Engineer, and by jobs that I would guess require a 4-year degree, if not a Master’s degree. This brings up two points that are very relevant to Aim High – first, that it is incredibly important to encourage our students to dream not only of going to college but of applying to competitive 4-year colleges and pursuing advanced degrees; and second, that a lot of these jobs require great academic and personal confidence. Developing confidence and leadership in our youth is as important to their lifelong success as any academic benchmark.
3: It can be hard to get kids excited about careers beyond the narrow set of jobs they may encounter in the media and in their communties. When I worked in a low-income school with 6th graders, I would ask kids what they wanted to be when they graduated high school, and the most frequent answers were singer/rapper, professional athlete, and hairdresser. Shortly after joining the Aim High team, I visited an Issues and Choices class where students were drawing sketches of their future selves. “What are you in your picture?” I asked the students, “what do you want to be after college?” The answers: Microbiologist. Neuroscientist. Pharmacist. Stuff the middle schoolers at my old school had never heard of. I have no idea whether this Aim High site was incredibly successful at inspiring students to highly educated STEM careers or if these kids hailed from a community with a very different set of dreams and priorities, but either way, I was impressed. Organization-wide, Aim High sites are a “college-going culture,” and our Issues and Choices classes incorporate a thread of college and career awareness so kids are well-prepared to plan for the careers of their dreams.
4: Teacher did not make the list – not even the “benefit to society” list! The measurement for this list is “% who think their job makes the world a better place,” and it is dominated by medical professions: 6 of the top 10 are medical, or 7 if you count veterinarians. I am admittedly biased, but I think that helping young people to become confident, fulfilled, well-rounded, and engaged adults is far more critical and impactful than helping pets be healthy. I love pets and vets, I really do, but teaching is on a whole different level of life-changing, world-changing work. It seems that either 1) an astonishing number of teachers do not believe that they are making the world better or 2) teachers did not participate in this survey, and I’m hoping it’s the latter. As a program that helps many young adults develop as teachers, Aim High aims to instill a lifelong passion for urban education; my completely unscientific guess is that 99% of Aim High teachers would say that they are making the world a better place. (Given the criticism currently circulating the healthcare and finance industries, I also wonder how many Securities Traders – #33 – and Pharmaceuticals Sales Reps -#44 – feel they are making the world better. Just curious.)
5: That brings us to my final point: It’s really hard to tell how they determined this list. For one thing, it’s impossible to see how things are weighted and who was surveyed. I am reminded of the time I looked in a college guidebook and discovered that my sister’s engineering college was listed as a top school for musical theater; it turns out that the publisher’s data was drawn from an email survey that happened to be circulated heavily among the school’s small and rather casual theater club. The “best jobs” data is, I imagine, skewed by similar circumstances.
One last thing: I am pleased to report that my job (Director of Communications) is #31 on the list and #4 on the “Most Flexible” list. Booyah! To that, I would add that Aim High is a delightful place to work. 🙂
