School daze

May 7... the day of reckoning... so to speak. I'm going back to school.

Not for a PhD... I decided... I don't really want a PhD, because I don't think I really want to teach anymore. I'll never teach the way they want me to. I don't believe in grades... I think they are useless and arbitrary. I just don't think I have the personality to maintain that power distance between me and my students. Because of what I talked about in the last post- the value in each person... They can teach me just like I can teach them. I have a hard time with education in that sense.

So why am I going back? Well, a lot of people do value the degree... especially employers. So, in order to someday get a job I love and feel valued at, I need to go back to school and get a degree in something that will be respected. I still have things to learn, I don't doubt that. I'm getting a second bachelor's... this time in Public Relations... which has a little overlap with Communication, but not much, surprisingly.

My first class will be newswriting... I've always fancied myself a bit of a writer, so it will be interesting to get graded on it for the first time in four years... and non-academic/scholarly writing at that. I'd much rather write for "the masses" than academia... I guess that's why I'm doing this.

Education is a funny thing. In high school, they told us that college would be so hard, and they would talk really fast, and wouldn't stop and answer questions or repeat themselves. And it wasn't true at all. And in college, they told us that they were developing us for a career in the "real world." What a crock that was. If that were the case, my bachelor's and master's would have me doing something a little more pertinent than being a secretary. What really counts, I think, is life experience... what you learn in the classroom has value, I'm sure... it provides a foundation for what you will experience and gives you a basis from which to analyze that information. But to think that college prepares you for work... not true.

So despite all that, I'm going back... mainly to make contacts, get some credibility, and get my foot in the door. I hope it works... otherwise I'm going to be wasting some major cash.