The "Education" Thread

[Dak]

Congrats! Don't take this the wrong way, it's just a friendly heads-up: Z Publishing is known for anthologizing their authors' writings and then trying to charge you for purchasing the collection. They also try to recruit published writers for affiliate marketing. It's cool to have something officially in print, but it's also good to be aware of some of the money-making tactics certain publishing houses employ.

This is more of a concern for people trying to make it as writers, e.g. poets, short story authors, etc. But as you say, not super auspicious for your professional interests, so it's mostly just a cool thing.

Thanks for the heads up, but I also kind of figured something along those lines. I was skeptical as hell before even responding, did a lot of googling etc. I honestly put little effort into the piece and it wasn't something languishing on a drive somewhere. I punched out like 700 words in one direction with the general topic, wound up gutting the middle and changing the approach and ending up with a product around 500 words. Few hours worth of total effort so low emotional investment, but still kind of cool. Hopefully they didn't have so few submissions things were auto accepted.

Edit: One of my brothers also had a fiction work accepted into the fiction collection for this round as well, I had to tell him to check his spam.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Had an interview with Andrew Zimmerman from George Washington. Went great. Turns out we were both at the Sleep concert a few days before, so we spent a good third of our time talking about guitars and music, and I gave him some gear tips. He's doing some really interesting research right now, following the lead of his last book, Alabama in Africa, on Germans, African Americans, and the Civil War. My main takeaway from the interview though is that I feel really good about getting into a top 10 place. I know of course that this has been what I've been setting myself up for and it's also why I'm trying to do interviews with potential advisers from all of the schools I'm applying to, but the realization clicked during the interview. It's also something that he brought up--trying to get into a top 10 place--because if I decide to follow through on a career in the university instead of leaving after I finish for diplomacy, then clout is important. Something like 70% of new job placements in my discipline are awarded to the top 10. Andrew put it well: the worst PhD from Yale has a better chance at getting a job than the best student from WVU, or George Washington, etc. If I end up going to Georgetown in DC (not a top 10, but close enough and they've got some other things to make up for it), or anywhere else for that matter, he said he'd be happy to sit on my committee.

6-8 more to go!

 

[Einherjar86]

Yeah, that's the way to do it. These days for English PhDs, not even a top ten program guarantees you a job, or even an interview. You really need to have teaching experience and at least one peer-reviewed publication. Of course, top ten can't hurt at all, and if you can swing it then I'd say it's definitely the way to go. I'd estimate the majority of placements in all humanities programs go to top ten schools.

It might be worth verifying whether the program requires you to teach as part of your fellowship. I'm of the opinion that teaching while in grad school (whether assisting full-time faculty or leading your own class) is an invaluable opportunity.

Glad the interview went well, good luck on the rest!

 

[viewerfromnihil]

It might be worth verifying whether the program requires you to teach as part of your fellowship. I'm of the opinion that teaching while in grad school (whether assisting full-time faculty or leading your own class) is an invaluable opportunity.

Agreed on the teaching. Plus, it gives me a chance to study subjects I normally wouldn't, like ancient history, for example. Barring special fellowships not listed on the websites, all do (I mention special ones because a guy who had an absurdly similar academic experience as mine, i.e., same CC, undergrad uni, and advisers at both places, landed a 5 year fellowship with no teaching requirements at Princeton). The best of the best guarantee 5 years of funding including a year funding abroad for dissertation research and requiring two years of teaching with a possible sixth year of funding possible via teaching. I want a little more free time for playing music, so this would be ideal. I'm also planning to apply for outside fellowships to spend a second year abroad (both years would mostly in Berlin) and get a German MA at Freie Universität Berlin during my first year (I've got a professor there who would sponsor me). The other advantage to the top 10 schools is that they've got the money to send me to Paris for a summer for fulfilling the second foreign language requirement. And if I'm able to spend two years abroad for research, I might try to find a way to get a couple months of intensive Dutch study in the Netherlands. If you know German, Dutch isn't too hard to learn, and that would also give me some reading competence in Afrikaans, which would be great if I pursued imperialism focused research after my doctorate or if I went into diplomacy. First and more importantly, however, is French.

In the meantime, it's another year in Germany, and I plan to spend a good amount of time at the university scanning books unavailable in the US.

Glad the interview went well, good luck on the rest!

Thanks! My next one will be next Wednesday at Georgetown. Thereafter, the interviews will be conducted once the semester commences via Skype.

 

[PrincessHades]

I want to hear everyone's thought's on this...today was my first day of junior year. I'm 18 and I'm really sick of school, I have a 1.6 gpa, and I feel like I'm wasting my time as well as my parent's money (I go to a private school).

I'm thinking about dropping out and getting my GED. If I can pass the test I can go to community college for the next two years instead of being stuck in high school for fuck knows how long. On a resume a GED looks bad, but at least I will have a college degree within a reasonable time. Most people don't even go to college, so what's the big deal.

IMO at my juncture dropping out, getting a GED and then an associates degree would be the best thing I can do. What do you think?

My main obstacle is my parents. I'm not dissing them, but they are very controlling when it comes to my future, even though its mine and not theirs. If I were more self sufficient it wouldnt be a problem but I don't have any source of income, no license, and no car so I'm pretty much at my parents mercy until I can get my hands on a car...

 

[The Ozzman]

>1.6 GPA
>Private school

What a waste. Get that up to a 2.0 at the very least.

 

[Dak]

Well I'd agree you're wasting time and money in a private highschool at age 18. Whether or not you could achieve a college degree would depend on whether or not you decide to apply yourself, which apparently you haven't yet.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

My GPA floated around 1.6 for a while when I was in high school and I ended up graduating with a 1.8 GPA. I had a year off after graduating working two jobs to save up for a car to go to community college, and I've had success since then. Whatever it is you decide to do, the bottom line is you've gotta take the initiative for yourself and go all in. If you end up going to community college, don't treat it like grade 13. Seek out the best and most challenging professors there and latch onto them.

 

[Dak]

Doing some research on RC and man, amazing how convoluted the research history is on something that you would think would have been figured out to some degree a while ago. After 3 days of reading the research it still amazes me "sight reading" as a beginning approach is/was accepted as the smart thing to do.

 

[Matt]

Do not drop out, stick it out and fucking graduate. Then either do CC, or join the military or something and get your shit together. Don't be a fuck.

 

[rms]

Doing some research on RC and man, amazing how convoluted the research history is on something that you would think would have been figured out to some degree a while ago. After 3 days of reading the research it still amazes me "sight reading" as a beginning approach is/was accepted as the smart thing to do.

RC? you still do this obscure acronym shit after all these years

 

[Dak]

RC? you still do this obscure acronym shit after all these years

Someone doesn't pick up on context clues . Reading comprehension.

 

[Matt]

Thinking about giving grad school another shot. I've been in an economics PhD program (ended up dropping out), an econ MA, and an MBA and all I did like a semester before abandoning it completely. I'd like to have that extra credential though.

 

[Dak]

The credential isn't worth the trouble unless it's really what you want to do.

Found this in doing my research for this RC paper:

Spichtig, A. N., Hiebert, E. H., Vorstius, C., Pascoe, J. P., David Pearson, P., & Radach, R. (2016). The decline of comprehension‐based silent reading efficiency in the United States: A comparison of current data with performance in 1960. Reading Research Quarterly, 51(2), 239–259. https://doi-org.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/10.1002/rrq.137

The present study measured the comprehension-based silent reading efficiency of U.S. students in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Students read standardized grade-level passages while an eye movement recording system was used to measure reading rate, fixations (eye stops) per word, fixation durations, and regressions (right-to-left eye movements) per word. Eye movement recordings were regarded as valid only if students demonstrated a comprehension level of at least 70% after reading a passage and answering a series of true/false questions. Reading rates increased over grades, with two exceptions: (a) between grades 6 and 8, growth in reading rate appeared to plateau; and (b) between grades 10 and 12, reading rate increases were seen only among students in the upper two quartiles. Changes in the other three efficiency measures reflected similar patterns of reading efficiency development over grades. The reading efficiency of students in this study was also compared with that of a sample of students from 1960, using norms reported by Taylor (1965) and validated by Carver (1989). Comprehension based silent reading rates in grade 2 were comparable across the 50-year span, but the cross-grade growth trajectory was much shallower in the present study than it was in 1960. These results suggest that present-day students may not achieve the same level of word-reading automaticity as did their 1960 counterparts.

And we wonder where some of the divergence in economic outcomes might stem from. Can't advance in a knowledge economy if you are stuck at a 6th or 10th grade reading level (at least in terms of speed).

 

[viewerfromnihil]

And we wonder where some of the divergence in economic outcomes might stem from. Can't advance in a knowledge economy if you are stuck at a 6th or 10th grade reading level (at least in terms of speed).

Poor places have poor schools. School funds have never been distributed equitably because that's just not how the system is set up here, and wealth inequality has shot up since the 60s. Not surprising.

 

[Dak]

Poor places have poor schools. School funds have never been distributed equitably because that's just not how the system is set up here, and wealth inequality has shot up since the 60s. Not surprising.

Are you suggesting that the original data did not include poor schools and/or that even "rich" schools weren't much poorer than rich schools today? I don't see this as something that can be blamed on the inequality bogeyman.

What I see is the change in reading education away from phonics and repetition combined with the proliferation of alternative forms of entertainment that draws personal time away from reading. Otherwise we are simply left with little more than IQ assumptions.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Are you suggesting that the original data did not include poor schools and/or that even "rich" schools weren't much poorer than rich schools today? I don't see this as something that can be blamed on the inequality bogeyman.

What I see is the change in reading education away from phonics and repetition combined with the proliferation of alternative forms of entertainment that draws personal time away from reading. Otherwise we are simply left with little more than IQ assumptions.

No, I didn't say that. I said that more places are more poor now than were before in relative terms. I know I didn't say it directly, but what I'm saying isn't exactly out of line with recent literature, so I figured you'd catch that. The problem isn't the bogeyman. It's our spending and distribution of said funds that's done in an inequitable manner.

 

[Dak]

No, I didn't say that. I said that more places are more poor now than were before in relative terms. I know I didn't say it directly, but what I'm saying isn't exactly out of line with recent literature, so I figured you'd catch that. The problem isn't the bogeyman. It's our spending and distribution of said funds that's done in an inequitable manner.

Why would relative inequality but a real increase in standard of living reduce reading performance? What's the mechanism?

 

[viewerfromnihil]

There's a lot of communities in the US that haven't had that "real" increase in standard of living. I don't buy this whole thing, that somehow smartphones and Wal-Marts have increased the standard of living for rural and urban poor.

 

[Dak]

There's a lot of communities in the US that haven't had that "real" increase in standard of living. I don't buy this whole thing, that somehow smartphones and Wal-Marts have increased the standard of living for rural and urban poor.

Electricity, indoor plumbing, air conditioner, cable or satellite TV, refrigeration, etc. I don't think you appreciate how poor the poor were in the 1950s/60s.