Random Fact #3

Fact: I have 2 degrees in early childhood education, but never taught or worked directly with children.

So, when last you visited, I had received a bachelor's degree in early childhood education. On to a career in teaching, right? Wrong. . .After student teaching for the last semester of my senior year, I ended up hating teaching!! Now, I didn't go into this just willy nilly. When, during my sophomore year, I thought I might want to teach young children (1st grade was my inclination), I spent a week with my uncle who was an elementary school principal and assisted in one of the first grade classrooms. I loved it. So, what went wrong? I don't know. Student teaching was like one continuous test. Every day your work was being observed by the classroom teacher you were working with or your college professor or both. It was draining and nerve wracking. Keeping the kids focused was a challenge. I could feel my patience wear thin with two or three boys with problems (these were 7 year olds!). If I was losing my patience as a student teacher, how was I going to be a good "real" teacher? Also, after all the schooling, it was amazing how unprepared I felt to actually start a classroom. Here's your room; now what? Anyway, much of this can be chalked up to immaturity and the rest to the fact that I just did not have the personality characteristics to work with large groups of children all day long. I should have investigated becoming a reading teacher or something where I could work with students one-on-one or in small groups, but I was not smart enough to think of that then and just wanted to get out! So, I graduated and then went floundering around in the job market for years, mostly using the clerical skills I had learned in high school. I may try to remember all of the places I have worked and list those tomorrow, but for now, let's move along to the second degree.

I maintained my interest in child development and educational policy (and, along the way, child care policy) and one day, about 6 years ago, took a job with a small non-profit early childhood education-focused association. The job turned into conference planning as one of the main programs of this association was to hold a statewide education conference. If you've caught on to the theme of my life at this point, it will come as no surprise to find that I hate conference planning!! (Of course, I didn't know that at the time and didn't know the job would have such a narrow focus.) This is when I had a revelation. If I wanted to be involved in the early childhood education field in a more substantive way, I was going to have to get more education. So, off to graduate school I went with the goal of earning at least a master's degree. I found a nearby program that offered a Master of Arts in early childhood education. It was for people who were interested in policy and research and did not require participants to have had a teaching background. It was, in fact, geared toward people who wanted to get a doctorate in education, but who did not yet have a master's degree. I had decided that I wanted a job analyzing research and making recommendations for early care and education policy in the U.S. or evaluating education and care programs and policy. What I didn't know was whether or not I needed a Ph.D. to do that. Being the reluctant student that I am, I was always questioning whether or not I should go into the Ph.D. program.

To wrap this up, I received my M.A. in 2004 and continued with the Ph.D. program, always with a finger to the wind hoping that the right job would fall into my lap sooner rather than later. That happened in 2006 when the non-profit where I had worked 6 years earlier, and was then serving on the Board of, decided to hire a new Executive Director. Ta da! I have just finished one year as the Executive Director. I wonder how long this will last?

Random Fact #2

Fact: I graduated from high school a year early and entered college a year late.

The year was 1976. A friend of mine noted that one could get all of the high school credits then required for graduation by the end of the 11th grade. All you needed was permission from your parents. We were in the 11th grade and both hated school, so we decided to go this route. (A couple of years later, they raised the number of credit hours needed so this was no longer possible.) So, there I was, a high school graduate 2 weeks before my 17th birthday with absolutely no job experience and no idea what I was going to do. My father says that I had promised him that I would go to college if he permitted the early graduation. This may be true because I probably would have promised almost anything to get out of high school, but, in truth, the idea of college scared me to death and I had no intention of going. (Not to mention that my parents had not done one thing to prepare me for the possibility of going to college--did not insist that I take college prep courses in high school, did not suggest that we go visit colleges, did not insist that I take the SATs.)

So, after a summer of doing nothing, my mom helped me get a job doing odds and ends in a small office through a friend of hers at church. Eventually, I took the civil servant's exam in preparation for applying for a federal government job (we lived in Maryland and both of my parents worked for the government in D.C.). I had taken typing in high school, but was never very good at it, but my skills were enough to make me eligible for clerical jobs. I got one at the National Endowment for the Arts. I worked there for a year with the growing realization that I was probably going to have to screw up my courage and go to college because my brain was turning to mush. During this time I was seeing a psychiatrist (something I've done more often than not during my adult life). I remember going to an appointment and crying (sobbing) because I thought I would have to figure out how to make myself go. To get to the point, I ended up at a small liberal arts school that was part of the state higher education system. They took me without the SATs because I had a good grade point average from high school (never mind that the courses were things like typing, business math, and individualized reading) and I had taken the ACTs and scored well. They also welcomed me because at the ripe old age of 19, I was considered an "older returning student." Yes; I had so much life experience! I was shaking so badly when I went to check in the first day that I could barely sign my name for the key to my room. Well, I made it through and graduated after 4.5 years with a degree in early childhood education. More on that tomorrow!