[lazy post]

found this on tumblr. agree 100%. longer post(s) on testing to come. happy memorial day!

news flash: poor parents value education, too.

I'm taking a summer class about diversity in higher education, and I really like it. The professor is great, the material is interesting, and it's going to help me write my all-important candidacy paper. Trifecta of win... until my classmates speak.

Well, not all of them. There is actually a really diverse mix of people and I'm sure/I hope that as the session goes on (only 4 more weeks!) the conversations will get better. But right now, the only people who feel comfortable speaking a lot are me (duh) and the ones who only know privilege and are therefore ignorant about the populations who benefit from efforts to improve access and retention policies... Which is kind of the point of the class. Instead of coming in with an openness to learn, they say stuff that makes me want to punch them...

So here is what happened in the last session.

We were discussing the flawed pipeline from high school to college that shows how about 20 out of 100 ninth graders will end up graduating with a two or four year degree. (That's national data, folks. Disaggregated by race and gender, it's even more depressing.) Professor posed the question 'Why do you think this is?' and my classmate replied: 'Middle class, well-educated people don't have kids, but poor people do. So it's not a surprise that, since more poor kids are in school, that they don't want to go to college, or won't be successful when they get there. Poor parents don't push college because it's not as important.' (I'm paraphrasing, but sadly, not much.)

Having worked with low-income families in the past, I know that this is patently false. The majority of my students were free lunchers whose parents were either unemployed or minimally employed, and I never met one who didn't value education... especially higher education. I never had a problem 'selling' more education to these families, and often they sought me out for advice. The hardest part was knowing that they were so far behind in the process that their dreams, while attainable, would take a lot more work. The admissions timetable can't start in junior year for kids who don't have a college-going tradition in their families. It is not that these parents don't care, they just don't know how to navigate the system. (I didn't touch the whole 'poor people have more kids than educated ones' comment, because that's just not correct.)

I said this in class, and there was an awkward silence. Nobody disagreed, but the topic died. This definitely wasn't the first time I'd heard this sort of comment, but it still bothered me just as much. I don't know how people (especially education people) can believe such nonsense, and it makes me sad for the people that my classmate is supposed to serve. There are plenty of gaps in American education - achievement, opportunity, gender, disciplinary - but desire to have their children succeed in life is not one of them. Poor parents value education. They care just as much and want their kids to be just as successful as middle and upper class parents wish their children to be. It's such a shame that some educators don't share this mindset, or at the very least, acknowledge it.

How can the system be fixed if the folks responsible for bringing about change think so negatively about the people they are supposed to help?

now what did we learn...

Welp, my first year of doctoral study is over.

Let me repeat that: MY FIRST YEAR OF DOCTORAL STUDY IS OVERRRR!!!!!!! Woohooooo!!

(I may or may not have hit a dougie when I emailed my final paper... you know, just like a normal doctoral student.)

This year, especially this past semester, was probably the hardest in my long (and not always illustrious) academic career. There was just sooo much work!! When I described it to my friends, I would always say, "it's like undergrad, only I have to do all of the work." Seriously, there was no room for slacking. But I learned a lot, both about the education stuff I'm studying and about myself. Here are a few of the personal take-away points that will (hopefully) serve me well in the future.

1. Sleep to rest, not to procrastinate. "I'll do this after my nap" = "This won't be done until tomorrow/next week/the night before it is due." Not always a good idea.  
2. Family-sized bags of chips should not be kept next to the computer. (Related: Family-sized bags of chips are not a meal.) 
3. If I don't go to the gym as soon as I wake up, I'm not going to go to the gym that day. Just wake up, work out, then attempt start the day. 
4. DVR anything that is remotely interesting, or else I won't get any work done while it's on. I have to stick to reruns of cooking shows and marathons of ANTM or Project Runway if I want to get anything accomplished.  
5. Spotify's genre stations suck. A lot. Artist stations are slightly better, but only slightly. 
6. Dance breaks are necessary... as are food breaks, walk breaks, Twitter breaks, and mess with the cat breaks. 
7. The energy from a grande hazelnut redeye (flavored coffee with a shot of espresso) from Starbucks will last 7 hours if consumed when tired... 10 if consumed when awake.  
8. Going into a work tunnel will only trap me in the lonely box. Sometimes, not working is just as important as working.
9. Anyone who doesn't understand how busy I am doesn't deserve an explanation. 
10. It's tough because it's worth it. 

As this journey continues, I'm sure it won't get easier. Hopefully, I'll be able to learn from myself and make it as painless as possible. I like where this is going, and I hope to be in good shape when I get there! 

summer living. summer life.

Spring semester is finally winding down and I'm starting to think about summer. Heeding the words of my advisor ("Breaks are just breaks from class, not from school"), I'm not expecting this to be the carefree existence of last summer. I have a class to take (thankfully, just one), plus research, plus my candidacy paper, so I know that I'll be putting in work. This is a given and I'm not against it. But I need to make time for fun.

Not to sound dramatic, but this school year has been zero fun... And this past semester in particular has been so much less fun than I've had in a super long time. I'm not looking for a replay. Sitting at my desk, drinking tea, and writing papers has been my routine for the last few months, and I'm so over it. Simply put, my social life has flatlined. I can go days where the only time I "talk" to my friends is via text, Twitter, or Facebook. THIS IS NOT OKAY!! Even though I skew introvert, I need people in my life. I mean, human contact needs to come in more forms than cashiers at Starbucks and Whole Foods, right? I vote yes.

Since I'm not at baller-status (yet), I won't be able to party it up every night. (Plus, I'm not 22 anymore and my liver can't take partying it up every night... or even every other night. Sad.) The school things I have to do are rather major and if I screw up this past year will turn out to be a waste, so I need to be smart about this. Next summer, I'll be finished with classes and working full-time somewhere while doing dissertation-y things. You know, being an adult again. This could possibly be my last real summer in a long time (eek!), so I have to make it count. And I have to get a tan. This last one is a must and a half.

I say all of that to say this: My main goal for the summer is to live again. Hang with friends. Dine outdoors. Party on rooftops. Chill in the Hamptons. I need to have a life, yo! There are very few things better than summer in NYC, and I plan to take full advantage.

... Oh, and I also plan to blog more. For reals this time.