Recently I have been getting a hankering to teach again. Call me nostalgic, call me bored, but I feel an itch that maybe ‘educating people’ will scratch.

So how to actually do this….not sure. I mean I would have to quit my real job to get back into high school teaching. I looked at tutoring, but that pays $16 an hour (minimum wage is $15….can you work on that degree-required $16 an hour wage too Bernie?).

But I got an idea from a buddy of mine: community college.

Perfect! I can work part-time on one class, teach at nights, and in a subject that I would like (not just Algebra for Losers).

So I went on-line to check out what is actually out there.

Well, Seattle has a lot more community college options than Tucson. There are literally 6+ community college options here. The big one, Seattle Colleges, has a tie-in to 4 different campuses. It is the biggest one in town so looked closer at those job openings.

And lo and behold, there is a part-time math-ish job. Exact class not mentioned because, well, I am sure they need many different classes they need filled.

So the next step I did was look at the exact classes offered for this summer, to get some idea what is going on. I scrolled to the Stat 101 class because that is my milieu and there were 6 classes offered: 3 during normal daytime hours, 1 night class, and 2 online. Online…..ah yes……the job description mentioned that being familiar with online teaching was very desired. Anyway, the 3 day classes and 1 night class: 20+ openings. The online class: waiting list (you would be 6th in line in both).

Uh yeah.

This is not unexpected at all. The future of education, especially community college stuff, is this online crap. I know it is advertised as more convenient and you can learn on your own time. But the reality is that most people take these classes because it is easier, or at least seen as easier. Easier to cheat, easier to fake what you know, just easier to get a passing grade without learning anything.

This is simply true. I am sure there are a few adults that have a full time job that need online stuff to get by. But I would bet my mortgage that the majority of those enrolled are 18-21, and their intent is to slip by. These are students that don’t like stats, are not good at stats, and yet need to learn it the most.

I will still apply for the gig (that is when the job site allows me; locked me out when I registered. Sort of a bad omen……) but definitely not expecting this to go anywhere. Even if the folks at Seattle Colleges give me a ring (about 50/50 I would guess), I would bet me teaching an online class would be far more interesting to them than to me.

We will see, but do not expect me to be a part of a subpar way of learning.