>> frank scott wrote:
>> "What's the difference between "to deconstruct" and "to analyze " ?"
>>
>> an academic career...
> ...
> Yeah, it's better than working in a sweatshop, and yeah,
> some academics are lazy hacks, but leave the cheap shots to the
> right-wing yahoos.
Until recently, I worked shoulder-to-shoulder with some vocal anti-intellectual yahoos, and no doubt will again. I wonder, besides sweatshop, what other jobs being an academic beats out these days?
I'm sure plenty of list members have better anecdotes, but armed with a humanities M.A. I scheduled interviews for adjunct positions at a couple of 2 yr. colleges, then bagged 'em and took a (non-union, alas) $8.50/hr. job assembling HMO info packets for a printing company. Why? Better and steadier pay, once you figure in the considerable o.t., plus a good chance of healthcare in 6 mos. - vs. subcontractual poverty and vague prospects of security off in some way-iffy future.
At the same time, my mentally handicapped brother - 50 yrs. old, lives with my mother - enrolled in a county-run work program; turns out he, too, was stuffing envelopes for insurance companies. Smaller envelopes, smaller paycheck - those were about the only differences.
I stuck with the job long enough to erase what value my degree had. I'd learned from previous experience not to mention my education to my co-workers because it could be sorely resented when opportunities for advancement arose. Bizarrely enough, this was potentially valid: after I applied for and eventually got promoted to a $9/hr. position, I was billed by my colleges for the transcripts my employer had indeed ordered.
When I did tell a few friends at work about my career decision, they were baffled. You'd rather count paper till your eyes blur? Well, no - but yeah, maybe. I have had worse jobs.
One possible moral: learning the difference between "to deconstruct" and "to analyze" may launch you into the $9.00/hr bracket - but if you wanna teach it, don't aim so high.
-- Best regards,
DMC mailto:dclark at ptd.net