A Golden Age?

A couple of years ago I was talking with a friend my age about our primary and secondary school experience as he was lamenting the sorry state of American education. I reminded him that we were pupils during the absolute pinnacle of public education for many reasons, but one of them was gender discrimination. When we were in school we had a premier crop of women teachers: in the 1950s school teaching was just about the best job an educated woman could get.

I had this confirmed today while listening to Superfreakonomics*. In 1960 40% of schoolteachers scored in the top 20% of standardized aptitude tests. Today that is well under 20% and the percent in the bottom 20% has doubled since 1960.

As the authors comment, American education has suffered a major brain drain as women have departed for other professions. The reason is partly that education is not every woman’s cup of tea for all women, but it is primarily that teachers’ pay has declined relative to many other professions. The authors do not mention (as my teacher friends know well) that the community and parental support for teaching and the honor accorded teachers have also declined steeply over that period.

Interestingly, in a later section the authors point out that a very careful study of the male/female salary differential in the financial industry showed that the major factor was that the women MBAs like kids. They take more time from their working years and they are less willing to work long hours than men. The salary differential between men and unmarried women with children (after correcting for educational differences and years experience) is well under 5%. Thus, more talented women could probably be attracted back to teaching without having to match 100% of other professional salaries.

So give a few moments for warm thoughts of those women (and men) who followed their passion, and not just their economic advantage, to put up with the likes of us and for those in later student generations who have done the same. As the bumper sticker says, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”


* If you think you understand the world, this book and its best-selling predecessor, Freakonomics, will quickly disabuse you of the notion.