I'm an MIT Physics PhD who aimed at teaching from early on. I agree that we're in the minority, but folks like us aren't typically looking for jobs at R1 universities but instead at small schools where teaching is actually valued. Unless you're part of that culture, we may not be the PhDs that you know.
I have a number of PhD friends like me, teaching at small liberal arts colleges and community colleges. It's a career path that doesn't typically have the sexy budgets and bright city lights, but IMHO can still lead to an academically rigorous and balanced life.
I studied math/physics at Colorado State Pueblo, a small school with very minimal focus on research. I would absolutely recommend it to my kids when they're deciding on a school, because having actual professors teach what they love in a dept that actually cared if the students learned was wonderful.... And the professors were happy, too.
I'm glad to hear this is a thing. I'm a first-year CS PhD student, and my end goal is to get a tenured position at a small school where they care more about my teaching than research skills; I want to teach, but I get paid about as well as a TA as many contract instructors, and I also want a family-supporting wage for my work.
I'm a PhD who wants to pursue academia, and I want to do so not to teach, but to be able to continue research.
Teaching is a pleasure - at the moment I supervise undergrads for both research projects and as an advisor, and it is very intellectually rewarding (at least at Cambridge - at my previous institution not so much). I look forward to more of it as an academic, it's just not my primary motivation.
I was a PhD with an aspiration of tenure, AND I went into it to teach, I am actually quite a good teacher, but I happen to be much better at research, and enjoy doing research, and I enjoy leading researchers. However, much better is not quite good enough in light of that maybe being good at research is not what is selected for in the faculty search. I missed every single one of my attempts to get a position, two years running, so I'm giving up on academia and its stupid politics, and starting an independent nonprofit research institute. Since there will be no students, there will be no teaching, so in doing so I will effectively be giving up what I wanted to go into academia for in the first place.
I (a tenure-track assistant professor of math) didn't go into academia primarily to teach. But I enjoy teaching, value it, agree that it is important work, and make an effort to do it well.
I'm an MIT Physics PhD who aimed at teaching from early on. I agree that we're in the minority, but folks like us aren't typically looking for jobs at R1 universities but instead at small schools where teaching is actually valued. Unless you're part of that culture, we may not be the PhDs that you know.
I have a number of PhD friends like me, teaching at small liberal arts colleges and community colleges. It's a career path that doesn't typically have the sexy budgets and bright city lights, but IMHO can still lead to an academically rigorous and balanced life.