Mary Shafer wrote:

Those teachers didn't get to $60M very quickly, either. They had to
get a Master's, keep taking courses, and teach a lot of years, like
twenty.

My dad was a teacher and I can tell you that they may not spend eight
hours every day in the classroom, but they make up for it with the
time they spend working at home. And the summers off are spent taking
compulsory courses for currency and increasing pay levels.

My dad is a retired teacher (as is his brother). He picked up his masters when
I was about two years old so it was his third year teaching. Back then there
was not much in the way of continuing ed that had to be taken. It is his
opinion that you can learn everything you need for the classroom in about three
weeks. The Washington State Governor's progeram I looked into most recently
required that someone with a math/science BS take five full load quarters of ed
classes. It turned out to be a "trial program" with only 20 people being
accepted. Location was an extension program not far from Microsoft headquarters
so renting in the area was out of the question and commuting nearly impossible.
It was supposedly aimed at people caught in the slump who had considered
teaching in the past, but I suspect your explanation is much closer to the
truth.

My opinion is they set up the trial to fail. Probably half the students would
find "real" jobs again in the five quarters the classes took. Half those left
would shoot themselves after three quarters of nothing but mind numbing ed
classes. In the end I bet maybe three teachers come out of it and it can be
declared too inefficient to warrant further investment.

Anyway, by the time I tracked down the program it was full. None of the school
system or state school people could tell me a thing. It turned out that the
only doorway was an obscure link starting on the Governor's web site!

On the other hand, I have had some conflicting reports that some of the school
systems do not require a certificate if you have a MS, PhD, or DrS. I think I
can buy a Doctor of Science in physics or computer science from Manchester for
about $1,200 :-)

As for the high tech professions, have you seen anybody get hired at 52 lately?

-- Charlie Springer