That is all. I hope to join the world again real soon. Happy Spring!
Whenever I tell people that I’m finishing up my masters and working on my thesis, it never fails, this question soon follows. I hate this question. In fact, I loathe this question. And I know that my peers do as well.
Why is this such a hard questions for us to answer? Well, for one, we’re still trying to define what our thesis is about. I mean, it can, and does, change every day. If we can’t even explain it to ourselves (and we’re writing it!), how can we explain it to others?
As soon as this question is out there, my mind goes into overdrive as I try to figure out how to best answer this inquiry. I’m considering the persons background. Do they know art? Do they know education? More importantly, do they know art education? How much am I going to have to explain to them before I can tell them what I’m writing about? I’m also taking into account how they’re asking the question. Do they genuinely seem interested, or are they asking just to be polite?
So what is my thesis about? What topic did I choose to dedicate two years of my life to researching? Well, there’s no way to sum it up in a nutshell, but I needed to define exactly what my research was about when I applied for approval from the IRB. Here’s how I put it:
Within art classrooms, the elements and principles of design (the EPDs) have traditionally been taught as foundational to the making of art. The proposed qualitative research project will explore art educators’ attitudes towards the use of the EPDs and foundational art education. It also examines art educators’ attitudes towards updating their approach to teaching foundational art through the use of contemporary art and art making. This qualitative research project explores the differences in attitudes held by pre-service and in-service teachers.
So, there it is. Maybe I should have this blurb printed up on cards so I can just pass them out whenever someone asks me that dreaded question. Anyway, time to get back to the grindstone. Just wanted to a take a moment to vent.
A little while ago I vented about being overqualified for jobs I was applying for. I know what you’re thinking, is it even possible to be turned down for a job because you’re overqualified? Uh, in my experience, yeah. And apparently others, like Shana Berenzweig, agree, as reported by NPR:
But now she sometimes considers that degree she paid so dearly for a liability, at least when it comes to some jobs. She takes it off her resume when applying for waitress jobs.
“It’s almost like people are just going to assume that because I have a master’s degree, I’m going to ask for money,” she says. “Or if something better comes along, I’m just going to jump ship.”
With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, sustained unemployment is afflicting even some of the most educated. Some fled to graduate school recently as a temporary safe haven from the economy, only to find themselves still without jobs. Many are applying for low-paying or nonpaying internships to try to fill in gaps in their resumes.
See? With teaching jobs being cut all around the nation, this job search thing is getting more and more difficult. I recently had a conversation with a colleague (a fellow art teacher, an employed art teacher) who expressed his disgust for the unemployed and the people who collect government assistance because they can’t find a job. He called bullshit, in fact, he pointed out that there are numerous jobs out there if you were just willing to get down and dirty, like, for example, shoveling shit. While I tend to agree with him, I had to point out that it is entirely possible to be overqualified for a job. I have to be honest, I don’t remember his response because I’m pretty sure I lost focus and became distracted by something else (I’m seriously beginning to reconsider the idea, as many have suggested to me, that I have adult ADD).
But back to my point (see? ADD). It’s tough times to be a teacher. Back in my hometown’s neck of the woods, times have been tough for awhile now, for every profession, but as NY State continues to look for ways to cutback and reduce its grotesque debt, things are getting even tougher. It seems every time budget planning time comes around, the North Country is the first on the chopping block. Recently, the jobs being threatened are in prisons and correctional facilities, state parks and of course, the old standbys, health care and education. Here are just a few examples:
But an ailing market has kept many in the profession longer than expected, while the economic downturn is shrinking the workforce. (full story here)
What’s a poor unemployed art teacher to do then? Well, I guess I’ll keep trying to get my foot in that door and in the meantime, follow Shana Berenzweig’s lead and make myself look less educated than I am when I apply for jobs that generally only require a high school degree. That’s not unethical, right?
… in research notes, transcripts, painfully boring books about research… not to mention job searching…
This is why I’ve been so lax in posting lately. This is why my posts have been centered around job searching lately. This grad school thing has been such a painful process for me. I am thoroughly amazed that I managed to not only graduate high school and undergrad, but I was a straight ‘A’ honor student. How? I hate school. I’ve never been able to tolerate reading assigned readings, I’ve never been able to sit through lectures, I frequently turned assignments in late and I was never prepared for tests. Yet, I somehow managed to get fantastically fabulous grades.
This blows my mind. I hate reading. I hate writing. I hate listening. And grad school has brought that all back to me. I remember when I graduated undergrad, I was SO happy to be done. I wanted nothing to do with school for a while. As a teacher, I knew I would have to eventually go back to grad school, but being in school for SO many years was tiring, and I needed a break!
This whole thesis process has been the worst thing I’ve had to go through in a long, long time. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind learning and reading and writing for pleasure but the moment it becomes academic, you’ve lost me. I get fidgety, I get anxious, I get restless, I get panicky. It sucks. Thank God I only have two months of this left!
Just for fun, I thought I would share with you some pages from my journal. This is how I maintain my sanity during the whole class thing and learning process. I doodle. And my note taking process is so decorative that I highly doubt anyone else could follow it. Enjoy!
Art Teachers Hate Glitter 