Give these difficulties, does teaching remain an attractive profession in the United States? In 1999, 7 percent of first-year college students indicated that they were interested, in becoming elementary school teachers and 4 percent, high school teachers. While figures reflect a modest upturn in the appeal of teaching in recent years, they are dramatically lower than the 13 percent of first-year male students and 38 percent of first-year female students who had such occupational aspirations in 1968 (Astin et al. 1994; Sax et al. 1999).