Education
I wanted to go to college to be exposed to a greater variety of people and ideas. I also wanted to read, to have the time to enjoy books and articles without people thinking I was odd. There were not a lot of readers in my neighborhood. The few there were were not consistent, usually getting caught up in socializing and hanging out. Reading can be a solitary activity that, as an only child, was right up my alley, though I did tend to read in my mom’s room while she was sewing and/or watching tv. I’d usually perk up for the commercials, which had wonderful jingles, sometimes animation. We sometimes read together, mom and me. She taught me to read when I was about three, I guess. She read to me a lot the first couple of years of my life, then I gradually began reading to her and it was off to the races after that. When I started school, officials told my mom to stop teaching me at home. Thankfully, she didn’t listen.
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I went away to high school, to a college town, Appleton, home of what we called Larry U. They spoiled me, giving me the impression that college was where you got to sit with profs and fellow students over a glass of suds or vino and hash over the major ideas of whatever was being studied. Such comradery, such collegiality. That was in the late ’60s, early ’70s. By the time I got to grad school, my expectations of academia were soon put to rest. Everyone seemed to be engaging in competition. Everyone was there to be recognized as the best in the hopes of getting money. Education had become a business proposition, cutthroat business, and that was not what I came for.
My master’s program was more collegial than my doctoral program. My favorite stats prof encouraged me to go on for the piled higher and deeper. The master’s program was more fulfilling, more meaningful than the doctoral. I really hated learning that the expectation was confine oneself to one area of study forever and, first and foremost, be ready to chase funding because that was the most important thing you could do to make yourself a standout in your department. So disappointing. Become a corporate shill or perish.
