Received: from bc.seflin.org (bc.seflin.org [199.227.192.20]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.8.4/8.8.4/CNS-4.1p-nh) with SMTP id MAA22824 for ; Tue, 9 Dec 1997 12:25:27 -0700 (MST) Received: (from a030052t@localhost) by bc.seflin.org (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA23910; Tue, 9 Dec 1997 14:26:28 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 14:26:28 -0500 (EST) From: Linda McDonald Sender: Linda McDonald Reply-To: Linda McDonald Subject: Re: SOCGRAD digest 135 To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu cc: Sociology Graduate Students -- International In-Reply-To: <199712070703.AAA25046@csf.Colorado.EDU> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Tom Brown: I do not get to read my mail each day and just yesterday read two of your posts on "Reports on Labor Markets" and "Funding Limits" posted on 12/7/97. Unfortunately, I am not always able to follow discussions on the list which are of interest to me, but after reading your posts, I feel obligated to address a few of your comments. I am a beginning graduate student, a few years older than the "traditional" graduate student, and am raising a 5-year-old son basically on my own. In addition to my responsibilities related to school work, home work and child care, I am employed as a professor's assistant 20 hours a week. I do not come from an economically privileged background, and when my parents immigrated to the U.S., neither was able to continue their education beyond the 8th and 11th grades (mom and dad, respectively). Among other things, they and their siblings were too busy working to help put food on their family's tables to even think about finishing school. Despite these and a few other realities pertinent my life--realities which have influenced to a large extent the opportunities and life choices available to me--I have, nevertheless, reached a point where I recognize that within me lies a great deal of untapped potential. Much of what I have learned and know relates as much to my personal life experience as it does to my academic studies. I consider both equally important for the development of critical thinking skills useful in *life* and in the world of academia. Two semesters ago I chose to enter graduate school for several reasons. My hope is that, if I am able to successfully complete my program, in addition to obtaining work that will provide some level of autonomy as well as an adequate income (we will see...), I will have developed the resources needed to make a positive contribution to my discipline. For me, this translates into making a positive contribution to the larger, increasingly multicultural society in which I (and you) live. To accomplish any of this however, it will probably take me longer to attain the Masters or Ph.D. degree than it may for the traditional graduate student. I believe you mentioned 5 years to complete the Ph.D. Yes, this is possible if one has nothing more than their studies to concentrate on and does not need to concern her or himself with any of the very real obstacles I have mentioned at the start of this message--or other circumstances of life equally difficult but, which must be contended with nevertheless. Even during my limited time in graduate school, I have become uncomfortably well aware that elitist conceptions regarding the "perfectly rational system" of higher education are well entrenched within academia and held to firmly by many like yourself, Professor Brown. What you and others who think this way fail to take into account is that currently there are MANY students like myself who make the decision to attend graduate school at great expense and effort (on many levels) because we believe that we have skills and knowledge worth developing and sharing with others. In this sense, your comment that, "Most of the folks who take longer around her [at J.H.U., I take it] really didn't have their acts together..." is not only insensitive and out of touch with the very large percentage of graduate students out there literally working their tails off despite the odds, it is WRONG. You also make the claim that, "You [we graduate students] have control over where you go to school." Wrong again. There are many students like myself who in order to achieve a sane (we try) balance in our lives which, I will repeat again, often include school, paid work, and home responsibilities, are have chosen our graduate programs based in large part on factors you obviously have failed to take into account. I am referring primarily to feasibility in terms of cost and location of the schools we attend. You claim that, "If you can't work the system at the lower levels then you probably won't be able to at the career level either" is interesting. Perhaps you can provide some useful advice on this count to those of us who have been surviving on the lower levels of the American social class hierarchy for some time now. Or, is it that, according to the "evolutionary perspective" you apparently adopt, except in the case of higher education, knowledge on how to *work the system* is something that people like myself should already be familiar enough with?? Thank you. Linda Perez McDonald a030052t@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us