<p>First, before I make my main point, I just wanted to say that if teachers in PA are making over $80,000 would some one please grab an application and send it to me? I won’t get into this debate again as I’ve said it before here. My salary scale tops off way prior to $80,000 and I have two advanced degrees. However, I’ve also only taught in two states that were not unionized. It’s illegal for teachers to strike in both states where I’ve taught. I do think Mr. Big is correct that in elementary schools science (and social studies) education has taken a huge backseat to reading and math. That’s because everything has gotten to be all about standardized tests and those two subjects aren’t on the test. It’s unfortunate but true. The district where I currently teach does a good job with these two subjects. However, I used to teach in a lower income district where our average test scores were often below the 50th percentile. We were pretty much told teach science and social studies if you get to it. That’s because they posted our test scores in the paper each year when those reading and math ones came back poor, but they never did publicity stories on that great geology unit we taught. I knew it was a disservice at the time, but I was told to teach math and reading and writing. (Thank you No Child Left Behind…or as we like to call it No Child Moves Ahead)</p>
<p>My real original reason for posting was to share something my dad told me this weekend. My father has been a computer science professor for over thirty years. He said that at one point in time they had over 2000 students listing computer science for a major (granted this was including freshman and sophomores…many of whom didn’t make it through the program). They currently are struggling to get 200 majors. This is a drastic difference and supports this decline that is being discussed. There appears to be a lack of interest.</p>