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my dream job no longer exists
Apr. 27th, 2007 07:40 pmApparently my college is closing down the elementary ed section of the free-ish fifth-year teaching program I did. Nobody knows why. I can appreciate that it's a bit pricey, what with a staff of 2-3, an annual enrollment of 6-8, and the fact that they forgive the loan for the program after you teach for a year in public schools. But Grinnell has a 1.4 billion-dollar endowment and a strong commitment to social justice. They can afford it and it fits with their mission statement. I can only assume they don't consider it academically rigorous enough, since they've been getting even hoity-toitier (Yes that is too a word) than usual in the past few years.
This means the world will miss out on some smart, committed teaching candidates. More people need to become teachers who never dreamed of being teachers. Grinnell's program made it easy for people like me to choose teaching, when we could have done anything. Not that I'm God's gift to education, but I do a good job and I am, I swear, smarter and more academically well-rounded than most elementary teachers out there. And I probably wouldn't be teaching right now if I hadn't been able to do their program. Who knows what I'd be doing instead.
This also means that my dream job no longer exists. I know it sounds silly to say this, since I have no PhD and no plans to get one anytime soon (though I'd start getting one tomorrow if I had a spare $100K); and even if I did have a PhD and Grinnell had an opening I'd have a hard time dragging J (and myself) back to Iowa--even to the oasis that is Grinnell. But part of me has wanted to run that program ever since I applied for it. On my suggestion, my parents have spent the past 10 years endowing a scholarship to fund living expenses for other students in the program. And now it doesn't exist.
This means the world will miss out on some smart, committed teaching candidates. More people need to become teachers who never dreamed of being teachers. Grinnell's program made it easy for people like me to choose teaching, when we could have done anything. Not that I'm God's gift to education, but I do a good job and I am, I swear, smarter and more academically well-rounded than most elementary teachers out there. And I probably wouldn't be teaching right now if I hadn't been able to do their program. Who knows what I'd be doing instead.
This also means that my dream job no longer exists. I know it sounds silly to say this, since I have no PhD and no plans to get one anytime soon (though I'd start getting one tomorrow if I had a spare $100K); and even if I did have a PhD and Grinnell had an opening I'd have a hard time dragging J (and myself) back to Iowa--even to the oasis that is Grinnell. But part of me has wanted to run that program ever since I applied for it. On my suggestion, my parents have spent the past 10 years endowing a scholarship to fund living expenses for other students in the program. And now it doesn't exist.
