Finally catching up with last week's New York Times, I note with horror that little article in their education section that today only 27% of university level positions are tenure or tenure track. In 1965, it was 75%.
I already knew back in the early 1980s that tenure track was getting more and more rare. Now it truly sounds as though it is going the way of extinction. Back then, the line was: Oh, it's just a downturn now; wait it out and in the late 80s, there will be jobs when everyone retires. Then it was: oh, it'll get better in the 1990s.
We junkies (adjuncts) knew better.
My thoughts and prayers for all those who are stitching together a living commuting between two or three universities in the attempt to make a living wage. Benefits? Fugadaboudit.
What does it say about our culture that we so devalue education?
That question leads me to the next rant: our governor is protesting that our classes are too small. Huh? I thought it was good not to have a class of 35-40 kids. Should we be ashamed that our classes are 15-20? He wants to let go of 1200 teachers in the next four years.
Argh. Yet we hang passionately on every twist and turn of the Tiger Woods saga and all those governors who seem not to be able to love the one they are with.
candles
Light one in your heart.... click on the photo to see a short video of burning velas.
caminante sign
IAES symbol
“The Windsor report. It’s just a report. When did it become like the Bible? The Covenant. Why do we need another Covenant? We have the Baptismal Covenant. We have the Creeds. What else do we need?” Bishop Martín Barahona, former Primate of la Iglesia de la Región de Central América and Bishop of the Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal de El Salvador
About Me
- Caminante
- I am a life-long Episcopalian, who has been ordained since 1993. I was rector of a family-size congregation from 1994-2008 and and ended three years as priest in partnership at a pastoral-size congregation in Vermont's fourth-largest city (Rutland) in 2011. Now I am vicar of a tiny congregation in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I am involved in church governance at the diocesan, church-wide and international Anglican levels. I was a member of a CREDO faculty team working with the clergy and lay leaders of l'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti. I also try to go to El Salvador a few times a year and am officially Canon Missioner of the Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador (since 2004). In 2007, I finished the 1570 km Chemin de Saint Jacques/Camino de Santiago de Compostela. I greatly enjoy hiking in the Vermont Greens and NH Whites and reflect on those hikes. In 2010 I also completed walking the 273 mile-long Long Trail in the Green Mountains of Vermont... maybe next the Appalachian Trail? Lastly but most important, I am a cat-fanatic. (N.B. Whatever I post here does not reflect either the opinions of my congregation or of The Episcopal Church but merely those of an individual.)
Inspiration Pilgrimage
Photos and description of the Camino de Santiago/Chemin de Saint Jaques
la prêtre branchée
You said what???
Cats for Obama
Mooooo
One campaign
MDGs
Sisyphus
Life in Vermont
Free Zone
¡Gracias!, Padre Mickey
2 comments:
Life in these United States seems to be all about escapism. We wallow in celebrity while letting our own culture, our own people, our own selves in many cases fall apart. It is easier to deny and hate than to do something, anything constructive to make life better for ourselves or our children, let alone those we don't know. Drugs, drink and celebrity worship do not make life better. They only prolong the agony. Sad.
It isn't that we don't value education. We don't value any worker on any job. You may be hired in a "permanent salaried position" but it is probably at low wages with no benefits and you can be RIF-ed in a heartbeat. You may be doing a great job, being productive as nobody's business and racking up great evaluations, but that doesn't guarantee a thing. There is no job security anywhere. Ask one who knows.
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