of goals and destinations...

While my life may be a work in progress, I do set goals for myself along the way such as completion of chores, accomplishing projects (which sometimes sit around for a bit first, gathering lots of potential energy), and short/long-term work that I wish to do for a living. Anyone who's followed me for a while knows of my pursuit in and commitment to music (spec edm) and most likely equally aware that I am working towards a goal of teaching English in Japan. I recently came across a blurb discussing flexible careers that also pay well and I was intrigued that teaching was actually one of the options. I have always considered teaching as an underpaid and thankless job meant only for those with a passion or at least a genuine interest for such a thing. I think that reservation may only hold up to certain levels, i.e. i imagine an inner-city elementary teacher will make less than a private tutor, who will make less than an undergraduate college professor, who will make less than post secondary teacher, for instance. I am sure there is a breakdown on salary rank based on various contingencies that is more clear, but I don't have that information on hand at the present time. The article I found did actually specify a level of teaching that is more monetarily rewarding and it gave me food for thought that while I am aiming for teaching that maybe i might give consideration to seeing how far I can go in such a field (a bit of a personal challenge, as it were).

"Post Secondary Teachers

Did you know that many college teachers and university professors are retiring? You'll work on a school calendar, with summer, spring, and winter holiday vacation time if you want it. Some professors only report to campus two days a week. They make up for it by the work they do at home, but not reporting to campus every day can lead to flexibility.

You'll need a master's degree to teach at the community college level and a doctorate in your field to qualify for tenure-track professorships at four-year colleges. Positions for post-secondary teachers are predicted to rise by an exceptional 12 percent through the 2006-2016 decade. 2007 salary averages were $98,974 for professors, $69,911 for associate professors, and $58,662 for assistant professors."
Source: http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_six_flexible_careers_that_pay_70k.html

On a side note, I would like to reiterate that I still have no intention o giving up on music and think that pursuing teaching will be rewarding in multiple ways, including financially facilitating my pursuit in music, which is also an underpaid career field- hey, why do I keep choosing underpaid fields as career choices!?