Stop claiming education majors “do nothing”

Where would you be without teachers?

Photo courtesy of Tima Miroschnichenko/Pexels

For some reason, students studying various other majors believe that they are superior to those pursuing the field of education. As an English education major, I am often told that my major is “easy” or that I am working towards a job that I will eventually hate.

This has always been very peculiar to me because the world needs teachers, and is in need of more teachers who are genuinely passionate about their students. I have never understood why people are so vehement about comparing majors and careers—every job has its importance in society, but many would not exist without teachers. 

A major part of being an education major is attending field placements. Field placements are times where education majors attend a school and observe a teacher and their class. During this time, your job is to take notes on just about everything. These placements are often a huge time commitment, as most programs require 20-40 hours per class, which only progresses as you take more classes requiring field hours. 

Not only are these hours a time commitment in themselves, but often, there is a large amount of travel time required as well. It is rare to find placements close to campus and most of the time, education majors are traveling 30-60 minutes for their placement—all of which is not compensated. 

While most students in other majors have opportunities to find paid internships or internships that are relatively close to campus, education majors do not. After you have completed the wonderfully time-consuming field placement hours, you must sign up to student teach. Student teaching is essentially working full-time in a school, but you do not get paid. The duties of a student teacher include observing, planning out daily lesson plans (usually six pages), and actually teaching in a classroom. 

If this is not enough to convince you that education is not a “lesser” major, we can acknowledge the actual academic work behind the major. For the adolescent education major, you must take classes in adolescent education as well as your content area. As an English adolescent education major, my nights are spent reading hundreds of pages of literature and working on lesson plans. 

Teaching is one of the most essential jobs in the world; without teachers there would be no doctors, lawyers, architects, etc. Educators are entrusted with fostering the future generation and providing students with the knowledge essential for them to live a successful life. Whether a student chooses to attend college or not, their lives are influenced by teachers and their ideology.

When a student chooses to attend college, they are being taught by professors. No college career would ever exist without these professors and it is ridiculous for people to still claim that education majors are not important. For example, professors teach the next generation of surgeons how to save lives and how to prepare for all of the outcomes. There would be no sufficient medical care if educators did not exist and continue to pursue that career.

With this in mind, I believe that it is integral to acknowledge that teachers do not get paid an amount that fully accounts for their efforts. Teachers work numerous hours in the school building and are then forced to bring copious amounts of work home. Many teachers will also take on additional responsibilities such as coaching a sport or advising a club. While this usually adds some money to the teachers salary, teachers deserve to be paid more money without having to take on additional responsibilities.