Resumption of Blog; Thinking About the Future

"Women--can't live with 'em, can't effectively refute their hypotheses." -- Howard Wolowitz, Big Bang Theory

I kept this blog up pretty well when I was in Oklahoma, for a few reasons. One of them was also the reason I started the blog in the first place: I had a lot of friends I wasn't going to see for a while and who might be interested in what I'm up to, what's going on with me. When I got back to Ann Arbor, I tried to keep it up still, but it didn't really work out. A big part of that was that I felt like I was back with my friends again. But now I realize that I have a great many friends scattered all over the country (and world) who might want a way to catch up on what's going on with me. Maybe more importantly, I'll be leaving Ann Arbor, too, soon enough...and what if I want to catch up on myself once I've gotten a few years' distance?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about where I'm going to go, what I want to do. Of course, right? Grad student, last year in school...but it's actually fairly new for me. I just don't think about the "distant" future very often, because it seems so hard to plan for. And of course I still can't know where I'll be offered a job or what might open up. Still, various considerations are forcing me to think about the direction I'm going.

I love teaching, so I'm sure I want to do that. Increasingly, I'm also certain that I don't want to end up at a school that caters to...well, kids who would probably do well in life even if there were no schools in the area at all. I don't want to end up at a suburban high school with classrooms full of kids whose only big question is where they'll spend their college scholarships. Beyond that, there are several reasons why I don't want to teach in American public schools. First, I don't think I could accept the cushy contracts public school teachers get: enormous health benefits and pensions, tenure, etc. These contracts are bankrupting state governments. I oppose the effective public monopoly on the operation of schools, so I don't want to be part of the problem. And I want the kind of flexibility that only charter and private schools can bring.

As far as location is concerned, I'm also beginning to broaden my options. At one time, I really only wanted to teach in Michigan. Later, I figured I could deal with living in a place like D.C., New York, or some other urban center struggling with issues of poverty and poor education. But now, I think I'm more open just to being somewhere, anyway where there's an opportunity to bring both a quality education and Christ's love to people in desperate need--whether that's in this country or somewhere else in the world.

What do you guys think? Next semester it's looking like I'll be student teaching at Greenhills, which is not something I thought would happen. If it happens, that will be my first significant experience with a non-public school. I've always heard good things about it--I know Junia really enjoyed teaching there!--and hopefully it will be a good window into an alternative to the graduate factories that our public schools have too often become.

I'll continue to be in prayer about this, and I definitely plan on sharing here the answers as they come.