Rileys Freaky Fridays

kris asked:


I teach at a state college that has a strong education department, mostly elementary ed. In my state, you cannot *major* in education, you have to pick an ordinary major or an interdisciplinary one. The vast majority of education students major in something other than science (or math, for that matter). For example, for incoming freshmen, there are 41 who are doing an interdisciplinary major, and *none* of those are in the sciences (there is an interdisciplinary science major).

Why is there such a disparity? Why don’t kids who like science go into teaching? Or, why do kids who go into teaching not like science? And what can be done to get more science-types to go into teaching, besides obvious things like increase teachers saleries.