I'm posting this reflection, in part, by the request of a deeply dedicated student, Michelle P., who has recently changed her major to English but doesn't know what to do with it.
I majored in English in college because the first semester of my Freshmen year, then at Austin College [not UT, but the tiny, smaller than UIS, Texas Ivy League private school--I got in on the interview--my SAT scores sucked], I took a course called "Challenging Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism and Homophobia" taught by a kind, thoughtful poet-scholar whom I can best describe as a male Jewish grandmother. I got a B+ in the course, but it awakened me to literature as a means of evoking empathy [I would not have spun that phrase at the time, but I still hold to the tenets of a paper I wrote for the class in favor of gay marriage at 18]. So, when I moved on to the University of North Texas my second year, I officially declared myself an English major. But how did I decide to go to graduate school?
Well, upon graduation, I was a 24 year-old cripple without a job or driver's license, so I reasoned that if I enrolled in graduate school, I wouldn't be forced to move home to my grandmother, whom I do love dearly's, Pentecostal TV and Fox News bombardments. After my Masters degree and PhD comps, I lost heart, if I every really had it in the first place. I was concentrating more on teaching than my own studies. I dropped the program in 2003. A year and a half later, I re-enrolled, not because I particularly wanted to, but because I needed a job--I know it sounds weird, but to teach I had to be enrolled. So know I find myself still not finished, without a committee and significantly in debt.
So, my advice is, make an informed decision. Dr. Ethan Lewis says, find what you like and do it. I've discovered over the years that what I'm "passionate" about is communicating with students and helping them discover important questions, not researching or even writing.
But what can one do with an Undergraduate or even a Masters degree in English? Hundreds are asking that question. The obvious is of course teach. I taught Gifted and Talented during my student teaching a decade ago and loved it. I also enjoyed 6th grade... My sister-in-law brings home a nice chunk working for an insurance group; my wife took her English-Psychology double major and with the addition of thirteen years of graduate school became a bona fide psychologist. [Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers; she's taking the national exam on January 9.]
If you're passionate about the actual "work" of a career in English, by all means do it. I have met genuine word alchemists in my life, like the great Haj Ross--but know well what you're getting yourself into. Jobs are scarce and literacy beyond Oprah is of course under-valued in the US.
So there you have it. I feel like I'm doing court-ordered community service [the court of Dharma maybe].
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2 comments:
Rawr, I haven't the foggiest what you can do with an English major. A friend of mine is majoring in English online, and all he wants to do is go around the world on his motorcycle and write in his journal.
I think you are excellent at teaching writing,... but when you say answer questions... does that mean you'd like to go in and teach courses on cultural relations or something or go back to teaching 6th grade/ gifted and talented? Personally, I think more middle/high schools need teachers like you to push the envelope of student's thoughts. Although, I must admit I think more than a few CAP students would grumble that you were gone.
Speaking of majors... I'm an aspiring legal studies/psych double major, any advice considering your wife double majored? (More power and my admiration to her for doing so.) I'm fairly talented at many things I feel like, but Law School is my big goal right now.
As a very wise woman once said with regard to my wife's career choice, which also may be applied to a career in law, psychology is a prudent because the people of this world are increasingly "mad" [in need of mental help]. Psychological training could only help you lend professional grounds for empathy when dealing with such individuals in various legal capacities. There is a significant deficit of justice in our society, in large part because of an analogous deficit in compassion and empathy. If human kindness tempered with wisdom were to prevail, we wouldn't be so embroiled with politicians who are so concerned with their images and agendas that the only choice the public really has is which way to be screwed. Some still argue that mandating desegregation of schools through Brown vs. the board of education was unconstitutional, but the majority of the Supreme Court at the time felt it was right because separate but equal was anything but As for CAP, they've already sent me on my way. Your friend's idea isn't a bad one, provided that he can do it with little or no debt. One of the most talented poets I've known lived in an old tour bus for ten years, parking in driveways and yards across the country, but he is also a skilled ranch hand and can earn money on the fly when needed.
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