i went to a real undergraduate school and walked out knowing that i could do it. that i knew i was capable and that it was all empty credentials was confirmed my first day of grad school. had it not been for the hourly raise and free tuition, i would have left and not bothered. i already was justifying grad school to my family by telling them that it was a free way to get the master's in order to teach high school! feeling that you have to prove it comes from attending fscked up unis. it is precisely be/c the degree does NOT signal intellect that it is meaningless and not actually worth it if the only thing that matters is this "proving something to yourself" business. if you actually have to support a family, pursuing it has no benefit whatsoever.
the namby pamby crap about just doing it and getting it done simply reinforces the very thing that makes people's lives miserable if they chose to put other values ahead of an academic career. you're reinscribing the very character of exploitation and oppression in the academic professions! you're blaming it on individuals. that some folks don't make it is no acccident -- and yes, dennis b, it is far more complex than i presented it. no willful intention but a desire for replication!
At 01:17 PM 3/20/01 -0800, Jordan Hayes wrote:
>That explains why to not start one, but not why to not finish one.
hey! you are the one who rides me about pizza delivery prospects! :)
look at it from where i was. prior to grad school i made ~14k full-time. i worked pt for 8k. got my tuition paid for. i got a master's for free and got an hourly raise to boot. had i gone on to do a master's for a HS teaching degree, i would have had to PAY. there's a considerable premium for a master's over a liberal arts degree in my field! i would actually take a cut in pay to go into academia!
i was NOT btw told about prospects. most ugrad profs are completely oblivous. most were boomers and had money thrown at them from USG, etc research grants. they got paid for doing nothing. they used to get jobs with NO conference presentations, let alone publications, let alone teaching exp, let alone the PhD!!
i had to choose between cornell (hist), syracuse (soc), and binghamton (phil). i talked to everyone i could think of, maybe 20 profs from all kinds of institutions. PLUS i "informal" interviewed at each dept. when i asked about prospects they acted as if i'd asked a ridiculous question! if they didn't, then they kept telling me how ace i was. when i confided in three phil professors my concerns about phil, not one of them "got it" and they all told me this: "oh! don't worry! there will *always* be phil depts and so, there will always be jobs!" HA! they were not stupid, either!
the fact is, they LOVE students who are their mirror images and they love having themselves replicated. i know! i've sat in an office advising juniors about whether to go to grad school! i know i should tell them the truth but i LOVE IT that they have thought so much of the discipline i love and that I had something to do with it, that i'm simply NOT an objective analyst of the situation!
which is another reason why this:
> And none of them
>would be in the business of hiding it from her (just as she's not
>in the business of hiding it from us ...).
is wrong. just look at what has happened here? yoshie has been told she is personally responsible for being a slacker by people who slacked themselves and who never finished or who didn't actually get to use their phud once they got it!! what is that about other than the desire for replication or vicarious exp.?
when other adjuncts or whomever whine, good ole USers figure it's their fault or they had special circumstances. they don't fess up to the fact that the academic career is structured to ensure that those who don't fit the normative ideal of the "professional careerist" will fail or feel conflict, etc.!!!
DUH, as chaz sez!
compared to yoshie, and people in English and humanities more generally, tho, i'm lucky. my colleagues are getting jobs at Riverside and other respectable colleges and state unis. if you think you have to work at an ivy or some research uni, well then you limit your options. considering what i've had to deal with, i figure i'm way ahead of anyone who finished their degree in 5-6 yrs with no responsibilities. i am not ashamed. it is too bad that you guys think anyone should be.
yoshie could get a job as a tech writer right now for an easy $20/hour, work mainly from home! i saw an ad for a boston firm, $40 with experience. she has plenty that can be parleyed into a job like that! this is writing email and web content, she doesn't even have to know anything technical! hell, i could do it too! i refuse to move again, however, not while my kid is heading for adolescence.
and chuckster, welfare does not exist anymore. if your vehicle is worth 4k or more, you don't get it, not in florida. and, practically, my ex would take the kid away if it came to that. no, i ain't going to live on the lam and i'm not going to keep a kid from his father. his dad's a jerk in many ways, but he's a product of this society like anyone else and his actions are that of a man who works his ass off and doesn't understand why i shouldn't too. yadda.
At 03:59 PM 3/20/01 -0500, Charles Brown wrote:
>There is a progessive historical school now that reinvestigates history
>for hidden and overlooked contributions and strengths of oppressed groups.
i mentioned, to Leo, Ar'n't I A Woman by Deborah Gray White. comes out of this school, but has some criticisms. it's a study of black female slaves in the plantation south. her discussion of the mammy/jezebel stereotype demonstrates just exactly why glorifying characteristics works to oppress both black and white women. again, you aren't naturalizing, but the research is exploring how naturalizing character traits and valorizing them is not unambiguous in its effects. i think we have to take responsibility for that. similarly, i've read an article, title/author escapes, about the problems with valorizing black families -- since so many people who did often forgot to show how those alternative family forms, empowering as they may be, were actually born of economic hardship and racist oppression. Potter's Addition is marxist analysis of rural white family forms--explores similar issues, though their families were never valorized by anyone.
kelley