For anyone who has been a student, you know that there are a few things you almost always mention along with your name.
Hi, I’m Cindy. I’m a second year doctoral student in education.
Name, year, degree objective and field/discipline. Along with that, we often have to throw in our research interests and advisor.
The fall quarter has only just officially started and I know I’ve repeated the above sentence at least two dozen times to entering graduate students and other student leaders at today’s student governance conference. The GSA held an orientation for incoming graduate and professional student yesterdays. About 1,000 attended. Pretty good numbers for a school with 11,020 total grad/professional students (Fall 2004 enrollment).
Other students — undergrad or grad — usually ask the same questions after I tell them my department and degree objective. “So, what do you want to do when you’re done? How long will it take to finish?” Most know that once I finish this, I will probably be ready for an academic or administrative career.
When I tell someone that I’m a grad student in education the most frequently asked question is, “so, you’re going to be a teacher?” Well, no and yes. I am not earning a credential to teach in K-12 school, but I will be able to teach at the college or university level.
Whenever I answer this question, I feel like a snob.
Well, you should and you shouldn’t. The children in K-12 schools are in DESPERATE need of good Chicano teachers. Someone with your uncannily high level of bi-culturalism and consciousness would be more of an asset to poor children than to paying adults. That’s just my two cents. I also understand the attraction of teaching at a university level, immersed in a fascinating (but maybe sometimes too familiar?) discipline. I teach children about letter sounds in order to make them better (and hopefully someday voracious) readers, but sometimes, I wish I could just teach the ignoramuses around me about the stuff I personally think is cool, like the imagery in poetry or tight bass lines in Jazz compositions. Do what makes you happy.
you’ve paid, or will be paying a lot of money in order to one day be a doctor of education, so you have the right to correct someone who asks if you’re going to be a teacher… whether or not it sounds snobish depends on how you explain it. And I can’t imagine the Cindylu that proudly displays NaCo and “Juan-on-Juan” t-shirts being a snob…
Sigh. I wish -i- was starting school.
i feel like an orphan! 