Another Day, Another Dollar in Debt....

     Well,maybe more than a dollar, but you get the idea.  I guess anyone who has gone to college, pursued a masters degree or has bought a house or car can identify with being in debt.  I decided to get a master's degree after years of working round-the-clock hours for people who found it more expedient to lay decently-paid, trained, loyal employees off so that revenues at the non-profit organization could rise and more conventions, meetings and trips could be enjoyed by the higher-ups.  In my place, three new employees were hired and not one lasted in my job.  No one is willing to work for 8.00 an hour as a virtual indentured servant who cannot take a breath in 9 hours, much less go to the restroom.  Funny thing, that desire to actually have a life...I withstood everything to be able to take care of my family, but I was still lain off and tossed to the wayside.
     Now, I am sure you are wondering what that has to do with the topic at hand.  Well, here it is: My ideal goal in life would be to be a perpetual student...not a mere student learning whatever, but a student of the best minds on the planet.  Regardless of language, location or subject, I want to know it all!  SO, I went for my masters in teaching English to speakers of other languages.  I saw a need in my local area that was not being met on any level, in primary and middle schools, in churches and colleges, and much less in the adult population.  I thought I could make a difference for a relatively disenfranchised group of people in the United States or travel to where I might be able to make a difference if no one wanted to see change at home.
     The problem is...I love studying!  Everything I learn is so philosophically RELEVANT to me and my environment.  I have professors who I would have LOVED to have known as people because they have allowed me to engage in amazingly intelligent conversation which, sadly, has been greatly lacking in my adult life since I moved from Washington, D.C., to the southeastern United States.  I want to rush and put everything into practice or get a job where I can ensure that people put these things into practice.  Well, that, as I am sure you know, is so much easier thought than said, and even more easily said than done.
     I have daily struggles with my conscience and with my BRAIN because I am deciding whether or not to pursue a doctoral degree in an area which fascinates me, but which is thoroughly against the tide of education in the United States these days.  I struggle with the fact that I have not made a difference in the lives of people that need that difference made for them.  I struggle with the guilt of knowing that there are first graders who are spoken to as if they have no value and that there are adults speaking to them in that way.  I struggle with guilt over not being able to be a life-changing force in the lives of poor students who, if they had EVER known attention, rigor and engagement in education, could have been anything they put their minds to.
     So, I have gotten myself into more debt to learn things that I cannot put into practice, to know things that it was far easier not to recognize, and to be a person riddled with bouts of conscience over not being able to make a difference.  In the state in which I live, the governor and state representatives have decided that teachers should all get the same pay, whether they have a BA, MA or PhD.  If it is not a listed job requirement to have an advanced degree, a teacher will no longer get compensated for having taken the initiative to be a better teacher.  It is also relevant to mention that teacher salaries in this state have steadily gone down, with the decline currently at 16% while prices of EVERYTHING have risen.  In a state where the masters raise was only 10% anyway, and salaries have fallen by 16%, I think if someone found it worthwhile to get into 80,000 dollars of debt to get a 2400.00 ANNUAL pay increase, it would behoove the state to let the person have it.  Good old democracy.
     Well, I am closing with a simple thought: If we all know that the children we raise are the next generation of leaders, voters, consumers or criminals...why don't we make sure that they have the skills to be one of the former rather than the latter?  These teachers that are underpaid and overworked, who serve as confessor, babysitter, mentor, ally and advocate are being discouraged from learning the tools they need to teach these skills.  Everyone can't think that is a good scenario.