Student Career Goals

Today in Algebra B, I was unsuccessfully trying to motivate some less motivated students. One of these students is a nice kid, but special ed., and has an attention span of less than 2 seconds. The only thing he concentrates on for longer than that is his daily gum distribution to the rest of the class. It drives me crazy that pieces of gum get thrown around the room at the beginning of every 3rd period, but at least it's a positive experience for him. The other kid is also a nice kid, not special ed., but could probably qualify, and is really, really slow, both academically and socially. He failed last term because he left school for 2 weeks to go deer hunting and never quite got caught up. He can appear to concentrate but has no memory and can't really apply what you did in problem #1 to problem #2.

So what happened today? I told them that they needed to do their work. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Ok, let's get going. Open your book. Let's try a few of these. Let me help you.
Kid 1: I don't need math. This is pointless.
Kid 2: Ya, I don't get this either. It's dumb.
Me: But you need to graduate from high school, right? You need some basic skills, right? Even McDonald's would rather hire you if you had a diploma.
Kid 1: I don't need a diploma. I write lyrics. I can rap.
Me: How are you going to pay for things before your first song gets recorded? What are you going to eat while your waiting to hit it big.
Kid 1: My cousins have a studio. Rappers make . . . . like $12 million.
Kid 2: Ya, I bet rappers make a ton of money and they don't have to graduate.
Me: I doubt your cousins make $12 million.
Kid 1: Well, they probably make $100 or maybe $100,000 or something. They drive nice cars. They'll let me use their studio and I won't have to pay nothing.
Me: So what are you going to do for money in the meantime? What will you eat?
Kid 1: I'll mooch off my mom until I'm 18. I got 2 years.
Me: Then what?
Kid 1: It doesn't matter. I don't need math.
Kid 2: Wait! I need math for what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do some work now.
Me: What are you going to do?
Kid 2: I'm gonna be a heart surgeon. They make like $350,000.
Me: Ok. You keep working on that math, then.

In other news, I just finished my first semester of my Master's program and paid the tuition for my second semester (why does USU make you pay before you start?). I crunched some numbers and I figure it will cost around $10,000 for my Master's Degree over the course of 2 years. I have no idea where we'll get $10,000 total, but semester by semester, seems doable. (It helps that I am teaching on my prep this year and in addition, the State of Utah likes to give math and science teachers little bonuses, even in difficult economic times. It also helps that my husband is in the military and his much-higher-than-mine tuition doesn't come out of our savings.)

Anyway, if I graduate on time, my pay increase will take place in my 9th year of teaching. According to this year's salary schedule, during the 9th year of teaching, the difference between the lane I am in now and the Master's Lane is $2735. Assuming that rate stays the same (which it won't), it will take 3.6 years of that additional salary to pay for my degree, not considering taxes or inflation. Interesting.

So, in my profession, it takes 5.6 years of working to increase your pay through furthering your education (2 years of school + 3.6 years of continued work). I don't know what my point is in all this other than I'm weird and was just wondering what all this costs. Hmmmm. You can draw your own conclusions.

My mom says that money is only relative and the more you have, the more you think you need, even though you could do just fine on less. I agree with that and have found it to be true. I think it is also good, though, for me to expand my mind and further my education. Am I doing it just for the money increase, though? No, but it is an added bonus, I guess. If I am not doing it for money, shouldn't I make sure I'm really enjoying it and getting something out of it? Am I? I don't know.

What I do know is that I have no idea what I'd do with $12 million nor do I want to be a rapper. So for the time being (at least until tomorrow), I'll keep my day job.