Re:Look before you leap (Score 1)

I, too, am ex-Navy (9 years, YN1(SS)). Got out, went to college (studying English) in the early 90's, and found that HTML was almost exactly like WordStar's markup, so found myself "designing" web pages in 1994. Over time, I "retooled" myself into a programmer and DBA. The economy tanked, I almost got laid off once and then did get laid off a year and a half later. Somewhere In there, I decided that I needed a Plan B, so I went back to school and got an M.Ed. with teacher certification. I am now teaching high school computer science and love it. First off, "stress" for teachers is nothing compared to "IT stress", ifyaknowwhatimean. The job isn't exactly difficult, especially when you're doing what you love. It sounds hokey, but I find it really rewarding to be teaching what I see as the next generation of home-grown US IT workers -- anything I can do to keep US tech jobs from being offshored like my job was. You're not going to turn 100% of your students into programmers/IT people, but even if you help one kid decide that that's what they want to do, it's a great feeling. Moreover, there just aren't enough CompSci teachers out there that actually have real-world experience; many HS CS teachers are just math or business teachers who are 1/2 step ahead of the kids and everything they know comes straight from the textbook.