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The Next Step
Aug. 15th, 2009 11:28 pm
Some people I know are getting ready to write their GRE exams, in order that they can get into graduate school programs in the USA and some nicer places in Canada (or elsewhere). I know that I should be starting to look into these things; that is, where I want to go, what I can do there, and what I need to get there.
I think that some people who go on to grad school are those who are afraid of the world outside of the educational institution. The institution (in the sociological sense) is something in which we are comfortable, having spent at least a decade and a half - the majority of our lives so far - in it. Though even as a teacher I will not leave that institution, I will no longer be a student in it, and that can be just as intimidating.
As of now I do not know whether it really is so intimidating.
But I know where I want to go. You know too.
Of course I would like to end up teaching there, but grad school is definitely something that I am thinking about. Whether it's a M.Ed-or-equivalent program (that perhaps I can better understand Finnish pedagogy - what makes their school system so great anyway?) or some MA in (Inter)cultural Studies/Anthropology or similar (but since I'm lacking background in that field I might have to start over with a BA), though, I do not know. It may very well depend only on what the available options are, where I wish to be.
In order of preference: Jyväskylä, where I know the university area best; Helsinki and area, where my friends need me; and Tampere, which is just a really nice place.
I know this, but yet I am too scared to find what I need to get to these places for university. It is a fear not of failure but of closed doors. Anything that I need and can do, I can make it happen. But if I am unwanted, then it is out of my hands.
One is convinced that I, for reason of my motivation, would have no trouble getting employment and the right to reside in Finland. But such thoughts are naive, because passion and loyalty and patriotism grant no one privilege in the eyes of bureaucratic denizens whose discriminating factors are not those things.
I think that some people who go on to grad school are those who are afraid of the world outside of the educational institution. The institution (in the sociological sense) is something in which we are comfortable, having spent at least a decade and a half - the majority of our lives so far - in it. Though even as a teacher I will not leave that institution, I will no longer be a student in it, and that can be just as intimidating.
As of now I do not know whether it really is so intimidating.
But I know where I want to go. You know too.
Of course I would like to end up teaching there, but grad school is definitely something that I am thinking about. Whether it's a M.Ed-or-equivalent program (that perhaps I can better understand Finnish pedagogy - what makes their school system so great anyway?) or some MA in (Inter)cultural Studies/Anthropology or similar (but since I'm lacking background in that field I might have to start over with a BA), though, I do not know. It may very well depend only on what the available options are, where I wish to be.
In order of preference: Jyväskylä, where I know the university area best; Helsinki and area, where my friends need me; and Tampere, which is just a really nice place.
I know this, but yet I am too scared to find what I need to get to these places for university. It is a fear not of failure but of closed doors. Anything that I need and can do, I can make it happen. But if I am unwanted, then it is out of my hands.
One is convinced that I, for reason of my motivation, would have no trouble getting employment and the right to reside in Finland. But such thoughts are naive, because passion and loyalty and patriotism grant no one privilege in the eyes of bureaucratic denizens whose discriminating factors are not those things.
