It’s Engineers Week! I am an Engineer and one of the main reasons I became an engineer was Mr. Masters – my physics teacher from Herndon High School. He was a former Marine and just a great teacher. My dad was an engineer so it was always there in my mind that I wanted to become an engineer but Mr. Masters made physics so fascinating, I knew that I definitely wanted to learn more.
But many students don’t have the chance to go into engineering. It is tough to get into university engineering programs – especially if you haven’t had the math and science courses you need in middle in high school.
You pretty much have to take Algebra in 8th grade so you can get calculus as a senior. And you have to have physics to even be considered for these programs. So many of our high school students are left out of engineering and that is wrong.
Only 1/3 of all high school students take physics. Between 2013-14 and 2017-2018 there was a 30.5 percent decline in the number of teacher candidates earning their physics credentials. According to Title II, data 42 states report a shortage of math teachers.
We need STEM teachers if we want more engineers. My dad great up poor and engineering was his ticket to the middle class. It still can be today.
So this engineers week – think about becoming the next Mr. Masters for the next generation of engineers.
