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http://education.yahoo.net/articles/fiv ... ?kid=1O1M9
Long story short:

#1: Don't be an elementary school teacher; be a principal because it pays better.
Because if you want to work directly with kids, you should totally take the administrative job that almost never works directly with the kids. Being a principal also ISN'T AN ENTRY-LEVEL JOB; you can't start there!

#2: Don't be a doctor; be a registered nurse because you'll finish school faster.
A minute ago you told us to switch jobs because the pay is better. Now you're telling us to take a 66% cut in pay!?

#3: Don't be a chef; be a foodservice manager because the duties are less complicated.
Because if you want to make food & not interact directly with customers, you should totally take a job that isn't making food & that does interact directly with customers.

#4: Don't be an animator; be a software developer because it pays better & is easier to get jobs.
....what? Those aren't even the same industry!!!

#5: Don't be a stockbroker; be a financial manager because they do more things & thus have more job security & higher pay.
...Huh. This one actually kinda makes sense.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

but... money is the key to happiness because it'll let you buy all those things you want because having things equals happiness.

To be fair to number three, if you are the executive chef of a place (which is what chef often implies when said), you are not going to be doing a lot of cooking. Like at all. At the hotel I used to work at, I saw the chef cook something once. I worked there for two years. That said, I don't think I saw him interact with customers a lot either, so I guess you're half right there?

I see I should stop being an artist and I should take menial codemonkey work. It all makes sense to me, I'll be so happy. Plus it pays betterno it doesn't

The blogosphere's constant slamming of the teaching profession is stupid and tiresome.

Teaching is largely thankless but extremely important. It's societal shunning of the profession that's generally responsible for America's gradually procession down into the lower ranks of math and science skills.

Then again, there's also about half of America who sees little to no problem with the increasing wealth divide in the country. So there ya go; everything is suddenly explained.

Teaching gets a bad rap. When I was an education major, people always looked down on me for choosing an "easy" major. Tons of people have this impression of the profession.

^ I know quite a few people who have education majors and they seem to have a greater workload than a lot of people I know with other majors.

It was a ton of work. I had ridiculous amounts of classroom observations with insane requirements in addition to all of my content area classes.

I'm not going to say I had more work as an ed student than a nursing student has, or a more intense schedule than a music student has, because both of those claims would be patently untrue. But nursing & music students aren't the ones who I've heard making such stupid remarks about ed students.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

Part of the poor attitude about teaching is the institutionalized rigidity that goes against every teacher's intuition in regards to responding to the needs of individual students, and how conformity in both the profession and the students is typically valued above any other goal. It's entirely possible for teachers to succeed and to be incredibly valuable, but in practice there's a choke-chain on progression that says loud and clear to both students and staff that they are just another number, not to rock the boat. Many never think beyond their first impression of the profession overall - that this is the way it works.

Part of it's the smoothing-out approach at play - in my experience, there's a lot more holding back advanced students simply because their personal skills and experience, their own progression, does not somehow mean a universal leveling up all across the board.

Personally, my later "education" mostly consisted of courses to which I could read the texts in a few days at most, understand near-fully, and yet we were expected to repeat this with no actual stimulus for an entire semester or even a year. I do not think this was a unique experience, and while education is considered valuable to western society, we've raised generations of adults who cannot entirely recollect being guided along by any caring hand.

Americans hate bureaucrats and yet they are recommended administrative careers by popular wisdom. Not just here, you see this all the time. Makes me wonder how anything would get done if everyone was administrating. Or how nurses would have any point in beng around without doctors.

^ Because people who weren't even interested in the job in the first place and just want more money are the best ones to run everything.

^^Nurses & doctors have entirely different duties; don't disparage nurses.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

But what would they do if no one became doctors? They can't sign for the drugs, which is usually the point of going to a medical establishment.

You need people of all types doing all jobs. No one job in this country is unimportant. I mean, can you imagine what would happen if we didn't have garbagepeople, 'xcuse me, sanitation engineers? They are highly unappreciated but important nonetheless.

Where are they unappreciated at?

It's regarded as a nonessential & undignified profession for those who lack the mental acumen for anything else. They're taken for granted until...

...they're on striiiiiiiiiiiiike!

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

If you took what the average American thinks of as essential, we would have nothing but lawyers, doctors, plastic surgeons, and bankers. Anything that does not make a lot of money is looked down on. No garbage pickup, people in those recycling facilities, teachers, janitors. Teachers are especially hated, they get all the hate possible for (mostly) being government employed, and all the blame for the supposed failure of our education system. And if you are professor, you may get more respect, but you are despised as a Marxist/librul, get paid too much, do too little because you have tenure(all professors have it), and if you are not in some science or legal area, then your whole subject is useless. Anyone that does a vital support type job, like keeping things cleared, clean, and running, are all treated like they have to be stupid. No one says they want to be a janitor or in maintenance when they are in grade school. The only profession like this that may get a pass is auto mechanics, because most people now have to deal with them at some point.

It's primarily because America is addicted to success. Success means a healthy income, some quantity of fame, an educated mindset, easy living... you name it. There's some sort of lifestyle that one can afford, and without something that has prestige in it, it's not appreciated because it's not what America has been taught to value.

When I was going through high school back in the late '90s, we were pushed heavily to pursue some sort of college career. And while I did have the acumen and smarts to do well in college, I personally felt as if there was this omnipresence to that desire, that failure to go to college was failure at life. That while they did have that skills and trades route through high school, you were truly successful only if you went and got some collegiate degree......... as if (a) everyone were truly a match for pursuing a college career and (b) the world would be a place if everyone got involved in a job that required some degree.

That's precisely the nature of the trouble. There is this push for excellence because it will provide wealth and wisdom, and anyone who fails to leave that sort of legacy thumbprint on life is obviously some sort of failure. I remember, even a few years ago, having that mindset of, "Oh god, some of my high school classmates haven't even moved out of my hometown; what is wrong with them?" I have to even fight that mindset myself and remember that the person who works in the Fred Meyer as my grocery clerk (a) is doing an important job and (b) deserves my respect and a smile. I am not better than that person just because I have a Master's degree or work in a very enviable field.

But it's not what I've been taught. And unlearning that is a process I may never fully reach.

It frustrates me because it inflates people's false expectations. Measure things like that, especially your life, and all you will ever find is disappointment.