2. Bamboozled

Bamboozled

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education (STEM Ed) is at a crisis point in our country.  They say there aren’t enough qualified teachers available in these areas.   

Additionally, obesity is reaching a crisis level in our country, especially among our youth. 

I decided to become a high school teacher.  What seemed a simple, yet noble goal ended up like a vacation with Kafka.

With my background I was offered an adjunct position at our local community college, teaching their nutrition classes.  The position was underpaid -- barely break-even -- and wouldn't move our family forward financially, even though I would be working nearly every day.  I decided to keep looking.  

I found another teaching listing as an adjunct at a nearby university.  I inquired, and was invited to interview to teach nutrition courses.  It didn't even offer a break-even salary after commute expenses, so I passed.  No sense going in the hole to work.  

One of the local high schools placed an ad for a Foods teacher in our Medical Dietetics job letter.  It was a better job and salary and benefits than the community colleges and local university adjuncts.  I applied.  I was immediately contacted and turned-down because I didn't have an Oregon teaching license.  Why did they advertise in my jobs letter, if they didn't want to consider an RDN for the position?  I asked if there was a provisional, temporary, emergency or grandfathering route to a license.  They said no, there never is (even though I have seen this very thing happen locally).  They suggested I get a license, and I felt great about the idea.  I talked with my family and decided to do it.

To teach Foods and Nutrition, I needed a current Oregon secondary education license endorsed in Family and Consumer Science (FACS).  The licensure instructions listed the only two Oregon universities that could endorse in FACS.  I did not want to enroll at the nearby one, as it was the same university that wanted to interview me, where I was needed to teach the very courses that I was required to take.  Instead I inquired at the other school (OSU) where they looked at my transcript and work experience and advised me to not enter their program because it repeats courses I had already taken in college, or taught at the college level.

No one had the authority to waive or side-step the required classes in a case like mine. Odd, don't you think?  I was backed against a wall, unable to do what they needed to fill the position.  I was still looking, and the high school Foods job was still open.