Yes, employment prospects in college teaching are and have been grim for a very long time. It took me years to get my current teaching position at a four-year college (which I have held for 24 years), and it has a heavy teaching load that includes a lot of composition classes. One can get positions in community colleges with just a Master's degree and in four-year colleges on an adjunct or year-by-year basis, but the full-time, tenure-track job is quite rare, even for those with Ph.D's.
Teaching college English is a rewarding but time-consuming job. I haven't regretted it for a minute, though it is intense and exhausting during the school year, leaving me very little time for writing. The compensation is the summers, which I can afford to devote entirely to writing, reading, travel, etc. Sabbaticals, which once came every seven years are now offered every eleven years at my university, a change which has been quite negative. But even so, legislators are eager to abolish them entirely. It has been sad to watch students' writing skills decline over the years, but even sadder to watch them losing interest in reading for pleasure. Many literature classes that once filled are now being canceled for low enrollments. I can only hope that there will remain a group of hardcore readers who will not be seduced by the lure of online entertainment from the joys of reading.
Susan
|