Re: Door slamming/Question--long rant

[Mike Keene <mkeene@utkvx.utk.edu>]

[Just read point #5 below if you want to skip the rant--mk]

I'm in an odd position on this subject because of my specialty in 
technical communication--my students come to me expecting to get jobs if 
they get our degree (a BA in English with a specialization in writing and 
an emphasis in technical communication).  My task (among my first with 
new students) is to explain that 

1. No degree of any kind anywhere _guarantees_ a job. (There was an old ok 
book, *If you meet the buddha on the road, kill him* that says this 
better--its point as I recall is that anyone who claims to be probably 
isn't, and is dangerous.)

2. If they follow our program's advice they have a _chance_ at a job in this 
field, but there's lots more that goes into getting employed than just 
our program.

3.  Education is about discovering/shaping/creating who you are both with 
reference to yourself and with reference to the larger world--cultural, 
historical, geographical, social, etc.

4.  Out of the 124 hours required to graduate from here, at most 21 hours 
are taken up by this part of this major.  The other 103 are extremely 
important, especially regarding 1-3 above.

5.  Neither points 1-2 nor points 3-4 better stop the day they graduate; 
today anyone not busy learning new things is busy becoming unemployed, 
and one factor to gain from all four points above is to learn how to 
learn, which can happen either from 1-2 or from 3-4, or from everything 
that goes on around them.

ON the other hand, my daughter is merrily majoring in history and 
minoring in education, not hearing anything I say about "and what if you 
find you hate teaching"?  Now maybe my daughter and Jeanne's daughter are 
similar, and I'd be flattered if Jeanne and I were, but I think we're in 
the same boat as Jane or John Q. Average American Parent, trying to make 
sense out of postmodern chaos.  But the best I can do is keep telling my 
daughter "keep your Red Cross certifications current because you can 
always teach swimming if everything else falls through" (not much of a 
living, I know, but the health plan is excellent), and the best I can 
tell my students is "try to do it all while you're here--give yourself the 
best shot at a career, educate yourself for life-long learning, and learn 
who you (and all the rest of us) are."  What else can any of us do?  Our 
children and our students are like our publications (including our 
e-mail)--we do the best we can by them while we can, and then we turn them 
loose into the world and hope with our good preparation they will fare 
reasonably well.  What else can any of us do?

Mike Keene
mkeene@utkvx.utk.edu