Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, or Child Development. I'm stuck on which one...lol. ;(

[sanantone]

You've already gotten tons of good advice, I'll just share my experience. My closest friend completed her associate degree in child development about a year or two before I started at TESC. Her degree is an AAS (are you sure yours will be an AS?) and unfortunately she took out a hefty student loan and the whole process took her 4 years. She has held the same job since graduation (10 years or so) and earns $12.00/hour. She is the highest paid aid in the K-5 district, and since the district only uses aids in special ed, she has occasionally been moved to different schools based on where the new year's needs are. She is on a 9 month contract (unlike teachers) which means "technically" they could end her employment each school year, but so far, funding has allowed her to be rehired each year. Summers she works daycare for about $9/hr and has done that since she was in school- so probably 12 years with them, and barely gets 40 hrs per week.

When she went to CC, I didn't know what I know now, but since then I've tried to help her look for a path for more income. Of course she has spent a decade in special ed, and I have encouraged her repeatedly to earn her bachelor's degree and run her own classroom. She certainly has the ability- her trouble is that only 12 of her child development credits are general ed, the rest are in child development, so essentially there is no transfer into an education degree without tons of work, and that mountain isn't one she's up for just now.

So, my suggestion to you is if you're even remotely considering that you'd like to be the teacher instead of the aid some day, don't waste your time chasing liberal arts or social science at TESC- do directly into a teacher ed program. Of course, if your plans don't include k-12 education, it is probably best to do whatever is fastest so you can start working. Anyway, just tossing that into the mix.

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