Help! Husband pushing me to find job!

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2006
Help! Husband pushing me to find job!
1529
Tue, 11-07-2006 - 10:35am
My husband has just taken a leave of absense from his high paying 80 hour a week job to focus on being home more and finding out what he really wants to do. He is now working 3 days a week at a job he really likes. He always said if he took this job he would find another part time job to supplement the income. I am working weekends and babysitting during the week, but my income is a joke. Our kids are 5 and 3 and cry every weekend when I leave. My problem is this: my husband has put no effort in finding that 2nd job he said he would find and is pushing me to work full time. I want to be a stay at home mom, but it may mean him going back to a job he hates. He says the kids will adjust, get over it. Am I being selfish or lazy for wanting to stay home? Is he being selfish for leaving a good paying job?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 7:21pm
Master of Arts in Teaching.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 7:28pm

"Yes, a high school will have more than one science teacher. They usually have a life science teacher, a physical science teacher and a chemistry teacher. "

I said that our HS has 4 science teachers *for each grade*. That would mean 4 chemistry, 4 physics, 4 biology and 4 earth science. Not one of each.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 7:52pm

Am I understanding you correctly? Your high school teaches chemistry, physics, physical science and biology in each grade? Are you sure?

I've never heard of more than three chemistry classes with the last one being a college level course. For physics, I've never heard of more than two with the second being AP. If there are 20 kids in a chemistry class and the teachers each teach 5 classes, that's 400 kids taking chemistry every year. That doesn't sound right. Even for a school of 2000 and that's assuming a very small class size. I would consider 400 having taken chemistry by graduation a high number in a school this size. I can see more than one life science teachers in a school that size since biology is usually required but not chemistry.

Here kids traditionally take biology in 9th grade, physical science in 10th chemistry in 10th/11th and physics in 11th/12th. Advanced students take chemistry and physics earlier and follow up with AP chem or AP physics. Or just go directly to AP classes.

I would expect a school of 2000 to have 2 maybe 3 life science teachers, 1 combination chemistry/physics teacher and a physical science teacher or two depending on whether a second year of science beyond biology is required as most kids would probably opt to astronomy or geology instead of chemistry or physics.

Here, in order to make chemistry a full time job, you pretty much have to round it out with math as a second subject, which, unfortunately, means splitting departments and being supported by neither. Which is why I went the dual minor with a second minor in physics. In a school of 2000 I might be able to make a full time job out of teaching chemisty and physics and stay entirely within the science department.




Edited 2/14/2007 7:59 pm ET by gr8fulmom1
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 8:14pm

OH the fun we have to look forward to when we're old. When BM's are the highlight of our days, lol.

I was getting the impression this is something universal to seniors. I know way more about my dad's bathroom habits than I care to know, lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 8:47pm

No you are not reading it correctly. I said they have 4 teachers *for each grade* and therefore 4 teachers for each subject. I was disputing your comment that a high school would only have *one* chemistry teacher. Our HS has 16 science teachers- *four for each grade* or 4 for each general subject (aka, biology, chemistry, earth science, physics). They teach different levels between them.

As I said, the HS has 450-500 kids in *each* grade. 1800-200 student total.

"If there are 20 kids in a chemistry class and the teachers each teach 5 classes, that's 400 kids taking chemistry every year. "

If there are 450-500 kids in each grade- why wouldn't 400+ kids be taking chemistry, 400+ taking physics, 400+ taking biology, and 400 taking earth science?




Edited 2/14/2007 8:48 pm ET by janetlynn_64
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 8:58pm

At the high school I went to, there are 11 math teachers and 11 science teachers. Of the science teachers, one is Chemistry/Physics, and two are just Chemistry. Each grade has about 400 or so students.




Edited 2/14/2007 8:59 pm ET by geschichtsgal
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 9:20pm

16 science teachers in a school of 2000? That is quite amazing. That's pretty much every student in the school in a science class every year. Sorry, don't believe it. It isn't the norm to take 4 years of science. Maybe in the top quartile but not in the rest. 1 or 2 years of science is more typical.

I went to a school of about 1200 students. We had one chemistry teacher and his classes were not full. The biology teacher and the physical science teachers classes were full but by 11th grade, most students were done taking science classes. Very few students took physics.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 9:25pm

We had 3 or 4 science teachers in my school of about 1200 (three grades). I know we had a bio teacher, a chemistry/physics teacher and a physical science teacher but there may have been two for physical science. We had numerous math teachers. You could take everything from balancing your checkbook to AP calculus. I don't think they offered AP science courses.

11 science teachers for 1600 students is a lot. That's one teacher for every 145 students and when you figure in that most students don't take 4 years of science, that's a lot of teachers. Math I can see because 4 years of math is pretty much a requirement so you have to have teachers to cover all students in math classes all years but that is not the case with science. Two years is more typical.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2006
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 9:34pm
Well that was depressing. I just did an on line search for chemistry and math teachers. I came up with 7 job postings (none in my state) for chemistry and several dozen in math (again not in my state). Just for grins and giggles, I did physics too and it's an exact match for chemisty. So schools are still combining the two to create one full time position as they did in my high school.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Wed, 02-14-2007 - 10:01pm
Hmm, that's strange. I wonder if it is common to have so few science teachers. I looked at the other big high school in the county where I went-- 10 Science teachers. One was Health/Science, one was Math/Science, and one was Science/Physics. They didn't specify which teachers were Chemistry teachers specifically. One of the high schools where I live now has 10 science teachers with 1400 students. Another has 11 with an enrollment of 1460. Another has 10, with an enrollment of 1300. And the competitive public high school attached to the University has 4 science (chemistry, biology, physics, and earth sciences) teachers with an enrollment of 300 total students. Maybe your state has particularly low science standards?


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