"Because," he told me, "I like the lifestyle. Mrs. Smith [a music instructor he knows] enjoys teaching high school, and she also plays in the symphony."
Mrs. Smith's lifestyle is attractive indeed: She teaches a subject she loves to students who are young and enthusiastic--and she does not have to give up her own musicianship! Science instructors, on the other hand--as my son points out--almost always give up doing science when they begin teaching it.
This is unfortunate. Surely the quantitative demands made upon one's time and energy by the concert stage and the research laboratory are not so different. Science teachers, when they were students, liked their lab work and were good at it. Why are they (unlike Mrs. Smith) unable to continue enjoying and developing these talents?
We in colleges and universities, where most basic research is done, could help matters by inviting high school teachers to participate ...
