My writing career is joyful, rewarding, educational, inspiring, hopefully useful to others and occasionally well-paid. But TEACHING? For years I taught Grades 1-2 Sunday School. One hour, and I'd need the rest of the day to nap & recover. Hats off to your wife.
I agree about the English Degree being valuable. I have one too. I was a paralegal. Law schools love English majors because they can express themselves (briefs and legal research) AND they already know how to analyze situations, facts, papers, like you had to do in classes deciphering poems, novels, plays, whatever. So English good.
You play a hero for your girls and wife very well. I am glad you are able to be the writer and show your girls what a real girl dad is like. They are so lucky to have you as a jack of all trades and mouse catcher. You are truly a wonderful person compared to all the "men" thant think they are great but are buffoons in suits. Enjoy your family and continue to come to the rescue.
My mother was an English professor in Idaho, and towards the end of her career her students shifted even farther to the right and became hostile to being taught. She arranged with the university to work helping other professors write grant proposals, and she told me how surprised she was at the difficulty some of her colleagues had. I think that when a person is good at something there’s an assumption it must be easy for everyone else, too.
Yes, I've had a similar experience. Even when I was in college, I never feared writing an essay. Some students dreaded it. If it was assigned in a class other than English, I knew I'd get the professor's attention with my assignment.
Walter, you did it again. Your entertaining account of how being a writer enabled you to be useful to your family triggered memories of ways that being a teacher enabled me to be useful to my family. Thanks.
Another wonderful story that is true that made a beautiful counterpoint as it called to mind my own experiences.
I completely agree with you on the value of an English degree although my own my own degrees are in political economy and public health. Over my career I've had the opportunity to supervise many people, often with advanced degrees in economics, business (MBA = Minimal Brain Activity in my lexicon), and statistics. Some of the smartest, most insightful people had a degree in English. Not only did this mean that they could put together an intelligible sentence as part of an intelligible paragraph that was part of a coherent argument, but it also meant that they didn't approach that task with the conclusions already filled in. They didn't take the time to think about what they had to say or how they needed to say it. They were not comfortable with the blank page. They had been trained to be uncomfortable with not knowing what the question was — and didn't know how to meet the challenge of figuring out what the question was that needed to be answered.
The least effective were those who never understood a literary reference — or understood why I would frequently quote Eliot's lines from the Quartets: "There is, ... / At best, a limited value / In the knowledge derived from experience. / The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies / For the pattern is new and every moment / And every moment is a new and shocking / Valuation of all we have been". I've been told it's depressing.
Thanks for that thoughtful comment Henry. I hadn't thought about it that way before, but I think what you said is very true. I was drawn to study literature, there was never any question that would be my major. I think I need to read some more Eliot! :) Thank you!
Thanks for the comment, Walter. Eliot does need an advisory. He can be bit antisemitic and somewhat fascist adjacent … Over the years, I’ve come to feel about him what Hopkins wrote concerning “the sceptic disappointment and the loss / A boy feels when the poet he pores upon / Grows less and less sweet to him, and knows no cause.” Even though I know the cause.
My writing career is joyful, rewarding, educational, inspiring, hopefully useful to others and occasionally well-paid. But TEACHING? For years I taught Grades 1-2 Sunday School. One hour, and I'd need the rest of the day to nap & recover. Hats off to your wife.
"Your job as a writer is to make yourself useful.'
This is similar to something George Orwell said I have always kept in mind: "Our job is to make life worth living."
GOOD MAN! :) Hugs, D~
You also sound like a constant source of laughter for your family, also an admirable trait.
I agree about the English Degree being valuable. I have one too. I was a paralegal. Law schools love English majors because they can express themselves (briefs and legal research) AND they already know how to analyze situations, facts, papers, like you had to do in classes deciphering poems, novels, plays, whatever. So English good.
You play a hero for your girls and wife very well. I am glad you are able to be the writer and show your girls what a real girl dad is like. They are so lucky to have you as a jack of all trades and mouse catcher. You are truly a wonderful person compared to all the "men" thant think they are great but are buffoons in suits. Enjoy your family and continue to come to the rescue.
Thank you Teri! We had a nice day on the river yesterday (the water was high so it scared me a little). :)
It was probably a ton of fun
My mother was an English professor in Idaho, and towards the end of her career her students shifted even farther to the right and became hostile to being taught. She arranged with the university to work helping other professors write grant proposals, and she told me how surprised she was at the difficulty some of her colleagues had. I think that when a person is good at something there’s an assumption it must be easy for everyone else, too.
Yes, I've had a similar experience. Even when I was in college, I never feared writing an essay. Some students dreaded it. If it was assigned in a class other than English, I knew I'd get the professor's attention with my assignment.
Walter, you did it again. Your entertaining account of how being a writer enabled you to be useful to your family triggered memories of ways that being a teacher enabled me to be useful to my family. Thanks.
Wonderful! I hope you're inspired to write it!
I’m on it.
Fun stuff. Yes you are very useful. Enjoy
Another wonderful story that is true that made a beautiful counterpoint as it called to mind my own experiences.
I completely agree with you on the value of an English degree although my own my own degrees are in political economy and public health. Over my career I've had the opportunity to supervise many people, often with advanced degrees in economics, business (MBA = Minimal Brain Activity in my lexicon), and statistics. Some of the smartest, most insightful people had a degree in English. Not only did this mean that they could put together an intelligible sentence as part of an intelligible paragraph that was part of a coherent argument, but it also meant that they didn't approach that task with the conclusions already filled in. They didn't take the time to think about what they had to say or how they needed to say it. They were not comfortable with the blank page. They had been trained to be uncomfortable with not knowing what the question was — and didn't know how to meet the challenge of figuring out what the question was that needed to be answered.
The least effective were those who never understood a literary reference — or understood why I would frequently quote Eliot's lines from the Quartets: "There is, ... / At best, a limited value / In the knowledge derived from experience. / The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies / For the pattern is new and every moment / And every moment is a new and shocking / Valuation of all we have been". I've been told it's depressing.
Thanks for that thoughtful comment Henry. I hadn't thought about it that way before, but I think what you said is very true. I was drawn to study literature, there was never any question that would be my major. I think I need to read some more Eliot! :) Thank you!
Thanks for the comment, Walter. Eliot does need an advisory. He can be bit antisemitic and somewhat fascist adjacent … Over the years, I’ve come to feel about him what Hopkins wrote concerning “the sceptic disappointment and the loss / A boy feels when the poet he pores upon / Grows less and less sweet to him, and knows no cause.” Even though I know the cause.