Change The Tune, Change The Dance

Jumping off the Ivory Tower and facing a mid-career change can be disconcerting to one’s sense of inner equilibrium and well being at best – especially when the “jump” was really more of a “push”. They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but when that first step is off a cliff and into seemingly endless darkness, it isn’t exactly easy to restrain an overwhelming sense of pessimism. Nonetheless, the journey has to begin somewhere doesn’t it? Whether having jumped, stepped, or shoved off from the Ivory Tower, I find myself splattered on the pavement seeking new directions to somehow get my life back together and to find my way back home – wherever that may end up to be. However, as of right now, the future seems very uncertain.

The world is apparently going to end – as we know it – sometime in December this year. At least, that is, if the Mayans get their way. I suppose if anyone really knows something about worlds coming to an end it would be the Mayans. The best predictions regarding the future seem to be based on past experience – and the ancient Mayans certainly have experienced the end of their world – as they knew it – so it doesn’t look like we have any reason to doubt them. In the realm of prediction they were, after all, professionals. Compared with our own modern professionals, if the past is any indication of success or failure, the odds are clearly in the Mayans’ favor.

Take a look around you. Be honest. The evidence is not good – at least not good that the Mayans were wrong. The world – as we know it – appears to be burning on multiple levels. Nothing seems right any more, nor does it look like anything will be getting better any time soon. To say anything else to the contrary would be the modern equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome is aflame around him. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to clearly see the flames – or hear the music – through the din of incessant fiddling. And don’t fool yourself. Politicians, Lawyers, Corporate Leaders, Educators, and corrupt College Administrators have known the score for years, and yet they continue to fiddle away while our lives hang in the balance. The Titanic was clearly doomed, but the band played on. Music can be a wonderful thing, but when we become so utterly distracted from the Truth – from avoidable doom – it becomes an imperative that we somehow Change The Tune.

Maybe – just maybe – there remains enough time for us to change the tune, and in so doing, change the dance – the dance that spirals downward to our own doom. However, the answer may not be as simple as it seems because it still begs the question – who controls the airwaves? Whoever controls the airwaves chooses the tune and determines the dance as well.

Perhaps it is dangerous to ask such questions in this day & age, but some questions just need to be asked, even if we do not like the answers. Sometimes the answers may be even more dangerous than some of the questions. And for those of us with any semblance of a post-secondary education whatsoever, shouldn’t we be leading the way in asking these questions and in finding the answers?

We may not know exactly who controls the airwaves, but we know for certain who does not. Whose song do you dance to? Whenever the song has not been chosen by us then we will always be out of tune, and at the current moment, unless we happen to be Nero, we have to admit that most of us seem out of tune with just about everything.

Let us not forget, however, that Nero was a total schmuck. Times have changed to be sure, but not all that much. Whatever your status – in the Ivory Tower or somewhere outside of it – if you can hear the music then you know what needs to be done. The choice is ours. It is time to knock the fiddle from Nero’s icy grasp once and for all. It is either that or simply resign ourselves to go the Mayan way.

Jumping From The Ivory Tower

The reason that I am starting this blog is because, after over a decade of being in higher education, I find myself in the need of making a mid-career change. Note that I  say “in the need of” and not “wanting to” make a career change, for I do not want to make such a change. Like many others, I went into college level teaching as an act of dedication, a commitment to higher educational values & to having a positive impact on my student’s overall learning experiences. However, the well known recent troubling economic times have resulted in the increasing corporatization of higher education. The vast majority of teaching jobs at colleges & universities have become part-time, or “adjunct”, positions with minimal job security, no health insurance, and few other benefits as well. College administrators now treat teachers as mere products or business commodities in a system driven by profit. Perhaps this is their right to do so, but we are not products or commodities, we are human beings. As human beings, we have the right to work hard at being the best at what we do, and asking for fair compensation in return is only reasonable. Unfortunately, these conditions have forced many exceptional teachers, such as myself, to leave our chosen profession and to seek greener pastures elsewhere. This is the situation that I now find myself in, and when I first realized it, even though it was a long time coming, it was quite a shock. Having to reinvent oneself mid-career is never an easy task, and it can create absolute havoc on one’s sense of personal well being & self worth. However, I know that I am not alone in this. We are losing teachers every day because of a faulty system that fails to recognize their lasting value. They say that before we can rise from the ashes we first have to burn. Too many of us are burning each and every day. I have not fully found my way to rise from the ashes just yet, but I have decided to make this a public process. People need to be made aware of the state higher education is in today, and what it is doing to teachers as well as to students. And, as teachers, we need to help and support each other as we go through the daunting task of reinventing ourselves after many years of being highly qualified educators. I hope that through telling my story as it unfolds, others will share theirs, and that together we can make this transition from higher education to the private sector a little less lonely & hopefully a whole lot easier. We have to face reality. College administrators are fiddling away like Nero while The Ivory Tower is burning down around them. However, because we are truly creative & critically thinking & highly qualified individuals, it will be up to us, the teachers, to finally rise from the ashes once and for all.