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Where can I do the most good?So here I am, graduated. I think I've already explained in earlier posts why I'm not a Montessori teacher anymore. But it's important to understand that my childhood dream was to be a teacher. Now I'm degreed and educated, and not quite sure what to do with this new aspect of my life. Isn't an education supposed to be your wings? I'm thirty-two years old and I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I WAS a Montessori teacher. Now I'm a couch potato. Scratch that. I'm an educated couch potato. I'm having such a hard time finding a job. Anything I want to do requires more schooling, but getting that extra schooling won't guarantee me a job either. I guess right now I'm just trying to decide what I want to do. It's important to me that my job/career/whatever is doing something that's good. I can get a degree in social work in a year or two. I can get a teaching certificate in one to two years depending on the program I choose. I can become a librarian right now based on my experience. But where can I do the most good? I'd love to be a social worker. However, teaching IS social work, and that's always been my dream. Or I suppose I can accept that being a Montessori teacher allowed me to live that dream. Library work is also very important. It's not as down and dirty as the other two, but it's much less stress. I don't need anymore stress. I have a family to care for. I have a resume in for a job as a youth specialist at the public library. If they hire me, I think I'll use that job to decide what I'll do. The paper work involved as a social worker may make me frustrated and angry. I hate bureaucracy. I might have the same problem as a teacher. But I wonder how much good for the world I can do as a librarian? Especially at a public library in the rich folk's part of town. Le sigh. It will come to me! I hope I get this job though. I need one, and I'd be good at it. Who knows? It may inspire me! __________________
"Feminists are just women who don't want to be treated like shit." -Su. http://farmerval.wordpress.com
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Don't underestimate the power of librarians!
I had a middle school librarian that totally changed my life! She taught me how to research, check my facts, and question my sources. She pointed me in the direction of the books that i just had to read, based on what i had read and liked. She was also just an amazing example of a person who treated kids like people who have interesting ideas and opinions.
Even the librarian that i had at primary school was important in my life, although not the same way- she got me started on the classics at an early age, and she never underestimated me.
Granted I was always a big reader, and having the support and interest of these two ladies was really helpful for a marginalized nerd like myself. Just imagine all the fine work you can do to help the marginalized nerds in that upper class community.
Tigerfish Mama
That is my DREAM job!
First of all, congratulations on your graduation! I feel your indecision. I taught for just three years (high school and middle school English) and decided it wasn't for me. I did feel like I was making a difference, but it wasn't with the actual teaching...it was with the relationships I had with the kids. I had the joy of working as a school librarian for two years, and I absolutely adored it! It was at a small, rural K-12 school where I felt like I had a huge impact. I had a lot of opportunities to talk to the kids and help them find books, of course, but also websites and other important resources. I now feel that librarians are the most underutilized resource we have.
I would feel important as a young adult librarian. One year I taught at a private school, where the majority of the kids came from white, upper-class families. I, too, thought that I couldn't make much of an impact here because they were all more or less well-fed, clothed properly, and had quasi-functioning families. But with those kids, I just had to stay available and I found ways to make a difference. Inspire the wealthy ones to become activists and use their position for good. Inspire them to write if they want to. And, wealthy doesn't always mean happy...you'll find some genuinely hurt kids in that crowd that you can be a saint to.
Good luck!
"Thou shalt not" might reach the head, but it takes "Once upon a time..." to reach the heart. -Philip Pullman
decisions decisions
ok, firstly though? WOOT WOOT GRADUATING! congrats, mama ; two words - huge.accomplishment.
continuing with alla the trickiness - i mean - i have no idea. i don't *know* you, yer total situation, so on so forth, but, what i can offer is - - - when i'm having a rough time with options (too many or too few) i always 1.) give myself a break from thinking about it. agree in my head to put it down for a week, a month, however long feels right, so i can come back fresh and inspired. 2.) talk to people who's opinions i value about what their take on it is. 3.) throw some tarot, flip a coin, free write in a journal, ask the universe fer a kick-down in the guidance area.
hope that helps?
but know, too, that coming from a place of wanting to do some good and make a difference - i'm pretty sure regardless of what form yer occupation takes, you will do good and make a difference.
just sayin'.