So who will teach our children - and help guide our world to the future?
----- Original Message -----
From: David Lohnes <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:10:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Student debt and the passive professoriate
A long-time lurker who rarely has posted, I would like to offer my
perspective and experience on this topic.
As a "child of the wealthy" and unmarried grad assistant, I was able to
achieve a BA in English (99), MA in English (01), and summer study at
Cambridge (and Spenser Society conference!) without debt.
After the MA, I taught for two years at a private, Christian secondary
school before beginning a PhD 03-12(at USC under our estimable and
delightful David Miller) which I did not finish (ABD, 110 draft
dissertation pages) (Sorry, David :( ).
After ten years of post-graduate study, grad assisting, and secondary
teaching, I shifted to IT about 18 months ago, and I haven't looked back.
Simple economics drove the shift.
As a tenured Spenserian, I might some day break $100k (if, for example, I
discovered and published the draft of FQ 7-12 secretly rescued from the
flames of Kilcolman), but more likely I'd be looking at $60-$80k
accompanied by severe geographic restrictions, as I'd definitely have to
follow the job.
I considered a public secondary school career as an alternative. Money
would be less (my brother is maxed at approx. $65k with his national
boards); geographical flexibility would be much greater (jobs in every
county); but quality of professional life would (in my opinion) be much
less.
IT simply annihilates any form of literature teaching, both in terms of
finances and in terms of geographic flexibility. It took less than a year
for me to hit $60k, and the sky really is the limit. My boss (about five
years older than I am) never graduated from college and has his own
multi-million consulting firm. In ten or fifteen years, that could be me.
And if I wanted to move to, say, Switzerland, it realistically could be
arranged.
So was an English degree the right choice? What will I recommend to my
children?
During my undergraduate study, my advisor (and idol) hammered home year
after year in class after class the value of a humanities-based major for
development of the whole person. "The question you should ask yourself is
not, 'What do I want to do?', but, 'Who do I want to be?'. Filling your
mind with the greatest of human achievements in the arts, literature, and
philosophy allows you more fully to experience what it is to be human."
I bought the argument completely, and while my peers were pouring long
hours into software development projects, I was reading sci-fi novels,
writing poetry, performing in opera choruses, and patting myself on the
back for my broad mindedness.
And it was as much for those humane reasons as it was for professional
ones that I undertook the PhD program. I wanted to study Latin. I wanted to
study Old English. I wanted to read more deeply in Spenser and his literary
and philosophical sources. I wanted to broaden my experience of literary
and human history.
And although I failed to graduate, I was able to achieve many of those
humanistic goals.
I don't regret my years of English studies.
But then, things have gone well for me, and the fortuitous opportunities
that allowed to enter IT so easily cannot be counted on to come to everyone.
So for my own children, I will recommend that they approach college with a
"job first" mentality. Electives are fabulous, but they should be just
that--elective. The real business of college is maximizing the dollar cost
and hour cost of the degree into a financially-viable, stable, and flexible
career path.
The market economy is an unforgiving mistress, and you better be prepared
to move with it and demonstrate value to potential employers.
I would only recommend an English degree for a student who planned that
degree as a specific stepping stone to a compatible career path, like law
or business.
I would not recommend teaching as a career path in any form.
Teaching (especially in the humanities) is simply not a valuable activity
in market terms.
On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 9:36 AM, Steven J. Willett <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 23:01:51 +0900, Michael Saenger <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> With respect, this is silly. Debt is a serious issue, but I have had many
> oustanding students who have gone from English majors to careers in law or
> medicine, the latter of which increasingly values broad-based training. I
> have told them that they are not required to go to English grad school,
> just to commit to reading FQ or Shakespeare in their spare time.
>
>
> With respect, this is the comment of an ethical dilettante. Let's see,
> run up $26,000+ debt in gaining an English major and then go on to
> professional school for another $150,000-250,000 in debt--that's a life,
> really?
>
> I like the long tail of your accomplishments and sefl-advertisement.
>
> --
> Steven Willett
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
> US phone: (503) 390-1070
> Japan phone: (053) 475-4714
>
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