Sept. 15

Career Coach: A Question No One's Asked

By Tedra Osell

Okay, first up, people, ASK ME QUESTIONS. I’m kind of bad about remembering to write this column on Friday, which no doubt tries my editor’s patience, but it doesn’t help when I have NO QUESTIONS to answer.

So. Since presumably everyone else is, like me, too busy scrambling around with the beginning of a new academic year to bother writing to IHE, I’m gonna answer a question that no one’s asked but that I’m sure everyone’s dying to know the answer to. And if you’re not, too bad: it’s the kind of thing that I think should be talked about, so I will.

Why in heaven’s name did I quit a tenure-track job at a good university in order to end up teaching as a community college adjunct?

Short answer: I really, really love the community college students and I really, really, couldn’t handle the northern winters.

Longer answer, with more detail: my first position — which I was lucky enough to land my first year on the job market — was at a Canadian university that was, I’d guess, the Canadian equivalent of a Research II institution. No med school, but one of the best veterinary science schools in North America; a new PhD program in English that had begun shortly before I was hired (hence the chance to help shape the program); growing enrollments in the arts division generally and our department specifically; a number of really cool new hires (like me!). Oh, plus it was in Canada, which, y’know, sort of freed one from some of the more objectionable aspects of American living.

So all good, right? Why not settle in, put down roots, and stay forever?

Well, for one thing, it turned out I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Rather badly. Actually, kind of devastatingly. By the end of my second winter I was miserable; by midway through my third, it was clear to me and my husband that I could not continue to live that far north. Which sucked, career-wise, and which is part of why I think that the academic party line about how you shouldn’t worry about location is bullshit. It’s your life, and if you’re going to be the one living it, and location matters to you, then don’t let people tell you it doesn’t. In my case, I realized that location really was a life-or-death issue on the day that I found myself thinking in the shower that hmmmm, if I were going to kill myself, I really should kill my son, too, because leaving him to deal with the after-effects of a mother’s suicide would be too cruel. Thankfully my depression wasn’t *so* bleak that I didn’t realize that this was insane. I was also able to realize that getting rid of (one of) the catalysts for that kind of depression was more important than the academic party line.

There’s another reason, too, and it’s the one that means that I’m actually very happy with my current employment (despite the structural hassles of adjuncting, which maybe I’ll talk about another time), even though it’s a “step down,” party-line wise. I really, really missed non-traditional students. The University of Guelph, by and large, drew traditional post-college students — bright middle-class kids, many of whom had their eyes on graduate school of some sort or another. They were great students, and I’m still in touch with some of them. But I have always had a real soft spot for the other kinds of students. The young people who, in the words of two of my students this semester, spent a few years “getting in trouble” after high school rather than going off to college, and who are now getting their acts together. The single moms and dads who occasionally miss class because their daycare’s fallen through, and who I make a big fuss at, telling them to just bring the darn kid to class if they have to. The middle-aged women, and sometimes men, who are trying to get a degree, or a credential, that might raise their income. The first- and second-generation immigrants who are diligent and quiet and determined. The jokey, smart-assed young men whose assurance hides real struggles.

In short, the students for whom higher education is unknown territory, who are crossing the borders into a huge country where they don’t really speak the language (and in many cases, don’t realize that they don’t speak the language). The ones exploring the lowlands in a society that focuses on the mountain climbers. To me, having gone through the internal struggle of “stepping down” the academic status ladder, their determination to get an education combined with the occasional flashes of defensive status-consciousness — the student who wrote in her journal that she doesn’t intend to “just stay at a lame community college” — seems brave and admirable. For the most part, commuter students make a decision, every day, to get up and actually *go* to college. They do so while surrounded by multiple reasons to just blow it off: they’re not living in dorms, they have to get the kids ready for daycare or school, their wives are suspiciously texting them for their whereabouts every twenty minutes, their friends either couldn’t care less or have left them behind to attend more prestigious schools, their bosses need them to work this afternoon instead.

Teaching those students, for me, is a great reminder that education and status aren’t the same thing. Which makes it remarkably easy, actually, to be very happy with this job.

Comments

I too did not follow the official path, and a big part of that was location. After doing a post-doc in Iowa — where my husband had a tenure track position, we just knew we couldn’t live there. We both needed to be closer to family and to an urban area. I really wanted to raise my son with a sense of diversity that is missing in the college towns of Iowa. I decided that the best place for me was a community college. You have more say in your location than you do in other tenure track positions. I ended up outside of NYC, and my whole family loves it here. I was also lucky and have a tenure track position at my school. I love my students. Again, diversity of age, ethnicity, economic status, and understanding of higher education adds to my teaching enjoyment. I love that I am opening up eyes, some times for the very first time. Teaching 18 credits does get exhausting, but this was so very much the right choice for my family.

anon, at 8:45 am EDT on September 15, 2008

A Question About Questions

I do have a question: Where are we supposed to post questions?

While I am waiting to find out, I’ll go on and post another question here: As an incipient Mama Ph.D., I’d like to know how parenthood effects your pedagogy. If anyone has had a before- and after-baby teaching career, aside from issues like daycare and fatigue, I’d be grateful if you could tell me how it changes a person as a teacher.

I’m sorry I have no questions about the community college career move. I’m working at my second open-access institution, so I really get the appeal of the community college student body.

Dr. K, at 9:10 am EDT on September 15, 2008

I have a question

And maybe it isn’t for you? I would like to hear from other mothers who started a new position in a new place with kids and hubby in tow — challanges, opportunities, strategies? I keep looking at this section of IHE thinking that there is going to be something here to help me (come on people, this is HARD) and I never see anything in your articles that I can identify with. . . perhaps no one asked why you were at a community college because no one thought that it was odd — very few of us are towing the line as it were. We are, after all, mothers in academia — which, in itself, can sadly be revolutionary. . .

Jeanne, at 9:35 am EDT on September 15, 2008

Ah, Jeanne, that is a good question. I’ll see if I can’t tackle it at some point (though part of my answer is, obviously I didn’t handle it too well, what with the suicidal ideation and all).

Tedra, at 12:25 pm EDT on September 15, 2008

I think this kind of story is so important for people, especially graduate students and academics early in their careers, to hear. I went to grad school in NYC, where I was already living before I started. When I told my adviser I wasn’t willing to leave the city, he just looked at me like I was crazy and clearly thought “Good luck working as a waitress.” But I have found two jobs I have really enjoyed here—one as a editor of an annotated edition, followed by a tenure track job at a community college. I like the cc job not just for the location, but also for many of the reasons you mention—I like these students and enjoy working with them. Obviously it is great if people are willing to move anywhere and feel that is what they want; but it shouldn’t be presented as the only way to go. Thanks for a great article.

Kate, at 5:50 pm EDT on September 15, 2008

jealous wives?

first let me say that i love you and think you are one of the most fearless and honest writers in the blogosphere. you have made me feel more at home in my corner of academia by sharing your voice.

i have one question about your column today:

“their wives are suspiciously texting them for their whereabouts every twenty minutes”

this example seems out of step with the others. is this a common problem? working men in cc with jealous wives?

Violet, Associate Prof at Midwestern U, at 5:00 am EDT on September 16, 2008

Tedra, I may take up Jeanne’s question as well if you don’t mind, though it might take me a while to get to it. But that’s my situation: I moved to my job 15 years ago with husband and kid (1, at the time) in tow. The short story is that it’s been fine for my career, not so much for his, but there’s probably a longer story worth telling at some point.

Libby, at 8:56 am EDT on September 16, 2008

Violet, I was referring to the students (I have one in particular for whom this is a problem, so it was a Real Example).

Libby, go for it. I think that (like most good questions) is the kind of thing that benefits from more than one point of view, no?

Tedra, at 1:35 pm EDT on September 16, 2008

I love teaching at CCs—and a good thing, too, because as an adjunct I need to work at at least two to maintain enough sections.

I followed my wife here so she could pursue her PhD, and we don’t have any issues about that. Actually, I should rephrase: I don’t have any issues about it. She has periodic pangs of guilt about “making” me move. But I’d do it again.

Jason, at 7:05 pm EDT on September 16, 2008

Parenting improves teaching

I am now a tenured professor at a school full of traditional age, middle class kids and even after 10 years I still miss my 2 year college, non-traditional students. They valued their education —and me—for what it could change in their lives.

I went through this whole process (adjunct, tenure track, move across the country, get tenure) as a single parent. It was hard, but not nearly as hard as the lives of my students who worked second or third shift at a local factory and went to school in the daytime and still maintained a family life. I tried to keep that in mind when my kids drove me crazy.

My favorite memory of the crossover of young children and teaching is the morning that my kids (both preschoolers) tried to persuade me to do something that I had refused to do. After the argument, the whining, and the pouting, I took them to daycare and went to my first class. The three 18 year old freshmen that were in the class that semester (all the rest were older) started off the class trying to persuade me to do something that I had refused to do. They used the EXACT argument, whining, and tone of voice that my preschoolers had tried an hour earlier! “Everything I need to know as a professor I learned through parenting.”

Mary, at 9:20 am EDT on September 17, 2008

English

Hey, I’ve got a problem with the Mama PhDs. I got my M.A. about 10 years ago and have been raising our 3 children since then, along the way doing room mothering and substitute teaching and now I’m looking (finally) at what I want to do — get into a PhD program!! I’m very excited about it and I’ve done a little high school teaching along the way. But everyone looks at my resume and sniffs in a haughty sort of way that tells me that they’ll choose someone else. I still keep up in my English content and writing education: I just took en extra 9 grad. hours of English and writing education this year. What can I do to improve my chances of getting into a PhD program?!Kimberlee J.

Kimberlee, at 10:07 am EDT on September 17, 2008

Working moms

I’m new to this blog community and it’s great to hear your stories. I am entering the working world after being a stay at home mom for 18 years. Needless to say, I’m feeling a bit shaking about the whole thing. I am not pursuing a job in my educational background of Nursing or Health education in which I have a masters degree. This is offically the beginning of my empty nest this month. Three years ago in preparation for this new phase in my life I became a certified life coach with a specialty in emotional intelligence development. I’m excited about the possiblitites of empowering women to take their potential to the next level. As an important side note, in 1992 I survived a brain anuerysm resulting in facial paralysis on my right side. I love doing workshops and working with groups but am uncertain about what particular niche in the community to target my service. I would love to work with an organization on a team. Any insights or suggestions? Thanks for your suggestions.

Jewell

jewell, at 8:25 am EDT on September 29, 2008