We and she are NOT UPSET. In fact we are glad she was told this now, but I’m wondering if you all think it was his or her place.
She was seriously wanting to take psychology. Her teacher told her that because she is a woman she should reconsider her choice of majors, because he or she ( I don’t know if the teacher is a man or woman, but I think a man ) thinks that there are far too many women taking psychology, and very few men… Come to think of it, I really think he is a guy.
He said that men would prefer and relate better to men, and there are not enough men taking psychology.
She ( my daughter ) said it wasn’t about sexism, but rather a numbers / reality.
Think the teacher should have said something or kept that to himself?
Is this a psychology teacher with a degree in psychology? I’d be interested to see what data back up the assertions.
I would take that opinion with a grain of salt. Or several, lol.
Sounds like it is outside this high school teacher’s range of expertise.
You know what they say about free advice - you get what you pay for.
It’s one thing to listen to free advice, you don’t have to take it, though. I have no issues with the teacher giving the advice but I certainly wouldn’t put too much weight on it.
Good thing is, at many colleges across this country, a freshman student doesn’t need to know what he/she wants to major in yet.
Very bizarre reasoning on part of that high school teacher. As someone who has several family members in therapy, I can tell you it’s NOT a general rule that “men would prefer and relate better to men.” Where did he get that information?
But in general, there’s nothing wrong with students getting input from all kinds of sources as to their major. I doubt that one teacher’s opinion – out of all that they hear on the subject from their friends, professors and parents – is what really makes them pick one field over another.
If OP’s daughter was talked out of psychology by a high school teacher – presumably before she even took a single college psychology class – she did not have a very deep commitment to psychology to begin with.
Anecdote: Our D’s HS psych teacher was male, encouraged her, she loved the class. She got a BA in psych, MA in sociology, works as a college mental health counselor, loves the job and the students, couldn’t be happier. Relatively low pay for MA, irrelevant, pays enough to live on comfortably if frugally.
No problem with a teacher talking about the reality of certain majors and about the job prospects of a given major.
Have a HUGE problem with the teacher basing his/her advice on a student’s gender.
Just personally, having worked with several therapists, I generally prefer women. It isn’t a reflection of them, but just a reflection of my own issues. A lot of the things I want to talk about are things that men will just never really understand IMO. Not that all women would either, but there’s a better chance. [again, own personal bias.]
I’m not very keen on hs psych when it replaces a more needed core. But for heaven’s sake, when a kid wants to take a legit course, one starter class, it’s nuts to go off about career prospects (or presumed patient preferences. This is loopy.) This isn’t one of the crazy non-academic fillers some kids get distracted by. She may never go for a counseling career, but is curious. Good for her!
I had to beg one of mine to fit in a college psych class. I just knew. And a week in, she called to tell me the skies had parted and she found her path.
Underpaid. Loves her work, which is demanding and with at risk populations. She’ll eventually do grad school and likely continue work with kids and teens. She is happy. And effective.
psych is not a good choice of major for most students in my opinion. Unless you really like working odd hour for very low pay or play to get a phd. It seems to me that too many students choose it casually.
I think that this teacher was giving his/her opinion during a conversation that they were having about college majors. I also think that your daughter will go to college, start taking classes, and eventually choose her own path… which may or may not be psychology.
I think a teacher should share valid information about career and college major choices based on job outlook and required classes (pre-requisites & coursework), but commenting on a major based on gender is ridiculous. The only time I can think of where it might be appropriate would be to say a field is seeking women or men so the job outlook is fantastic. The teacher’s thoughts are strange to me, particularly in this day and age.
My guess is that if the comments were as off the wall as we’re reading, then your daughter would have ignored them.
I think the explanation probably got confused along the way somewhere. If they were strong enough to convince your daughter to change her major, they must have been arguments that actually make sense.
Let us pretend the teacher is a female. Would things get better?
Next, there is big push to have more female students study STEM, etc. But in order to make that happen, one would think these female students would come from those traditionally female-rich fields, such as psychology and education, right? If the push toward STEM is legit, how about the push away from psychology?
I proposed questions and have no good answer. I do agree that if the teacher is a male, he can be a little bit more sophisticated in his articulation and reasoning. But my conjecture is that this teacher had good intention when he said all those things.
There are more opportunities for bright, open minded, well educated psych majors than counseling. Or working with male clients. OP’s daughter may have said counseling, but in hs, she’s not expected to know where every avenue leads. There’s corporate, marketing, program management, research, the non profit sector, and more. And the fact that not all jobs require specific book learning.
If there is a possible position to take, there is someone with that opinion, no matter how dumb, stupid, immoral or whatever. There is no shortage of stupid opinions in any facet of life. Good life lesson.