I wanted to write a quick addendum as to why someone would go to graduate school.
As an undergrad, I studied English. I couldn't really get a job outside of advertising. Newspapers didn't want me and editing was out because there is little or no call for an editor in Oklahoma. I could sell insurance but I don't like people that much and couldn't sell ice cubes in hell.
And Walmart won't hire me. Just won't. I was basically unemployable and was actually managing the organic chemistry teaching labs and teaching in the labs at OSU. Yes, that's what everyone does with a degree in English. Besides drink and smoke pot. My (now ex) got a great job in Noble, and I needed something to do when we moved to Norman. So I decided on English Education. I could teach English on the college level with a master's degree.
Once I got to the end of the degree program, I found that they will only let you do that if you have 18 graduate credit hours in English. Allll of my stuff was English Ed- how to teach English.
So, I ran a Communications Lab at a community college for a couple of years and taught for them. Good enough to teach part time, but not good enough to teach full time. I was passed over for positions in developmental education and in English at that college. I was even the President of the Oklahoma Association for Developmental Education.
Fuck it. I moved back to Washington to be near my grandparents and taught in a prison. They hated me. Not the inmates, the administration. Article forthcoming. See my older blogs. I concluded that if I was to do anything in the world, I'd need a PhD.
Yes, I need a doctoral degree.
Because even though I'm jaded,
even though I gripe,
even though I buck the system
and complain about whitebread students
with no legitimate complaint in the world
and teach and teach and teach
for little or no money
and haven't been to a dentist in three years
and don't have health insurance
and live somewhere near the edge of poverty and ruin,
I can I must I will
make a positive difference in the world.
You've already made a positive difference in the world, and you continue to do so. Having read the paper, or at least a first draft of the paper on your experiences teaching in a prison, i know you've had a positive impact on this world. Seeing the comments from some of your former students at OCCC, I know you've had a positive influence on the world.
ReplyDeleteBe thankful Walmart refused to hire you. Keep up the good work. Keep fighting the good fight. The best way to buck the system is from within.