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Peer Review, Fall 2002
Reality Check
Nice Work
By Eliza Jane Reilly, director of programs
for the Office of Science, Health, and Civic Engagement,
Association of American Colleges and Universities, and
executive director, American Conference of Academic
Deans, and Johanna Reilly Gosse, sophomore, Simon's
Rock College of Bard
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Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such.
(Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings)
Parent: (Beaming) Gee, Honey, you've made
us so proud. You have really thrown yourself into your academic
work, made the Dean's List, taken advantage of all a strong
liberal education had to offer. Do you have any idea what
you might like to do after graduation?
Child: Well, Mom, I think it must be pretty
clear by now that there is something I'm really interested
in, in fact, something I'm totally head over heels in love
with. I've decided I want to go to graduate school and study
art history-I'm pretty sure I want to teach-you know, be a
professor, like the great teachers I have in college.
Parent: (Sinking into chair) Holy Mother
of Mercy, you can't be serious! I knew you were really preoccupied
with art history, but I figured it was just a youthful phase,
like being a socialist, or liking the Backstreet Boys.
Please tell me you're joking...where did I go wrong?
Child: Honestly, Mom, I really thought you'd
be happy about this, after all you studied art history, in
fact you're the one who got me interested in art history in
the first place! You and Dad have always told me to "follow
my dream," and I can't think of anything better than studying
the thing I love and offering my knowledge to others, in the
hopes that they will love it as much as I do.
Parent: Of course I wanted you to be "interested"
in art history, and English, and history and lots of other
good things that develop your cultural sensitivities and improve
your writing and critical thinking skills--so you would be
better prepared to "follow your dream," preferably a dream
of being a lawyer, or a pediatrician, or an actuary. I never
meant for you to get carried away and throw your life away
on some pipe dream! Do you know what kind of life you are
setting yourself up for? You'll spend ten years in graduate
school, go heavily into debt, and have less than a 50 percent
chance of getting a job--and even if you get a job--haven't
you read this issue of Peer Review, for gosh sakes?!
Child: (in a steely voice) Mom, its what
I want to do, its what I'm interested in--and its not like
I was telling you I wanted to be a street mime, for heaven's
sake.
Parent: (Shrilly) Hey, at least a street
mime has a marketable skill! And compared to college
teachers, street mimes get respect! Believe me, young lady,
there's a big difference between knowing what you're interested
in and knowing what's in your best interest. (Voice softening,
with note of pleading) What happened to your wanting to be
an actress? You love the theatre, and it's a union job. When
you were nine you wanted to be an astronaut--its not too late!
You could start brushing up on your physics now!
Child: (Eyes narrowing) I really don't understand
this. Both you and Dad got Ph.D.s in the humanities, why are
you really so freaked out?
Parent: I just don't want you to go through
what we have gone through! Years of un- or under-employment,
the financial insecurity, the lonely and nomadic existence
following the academic job market, the pain of training for
years for a profession you'll never practice--no one wants
their child to go through that!
Child: Sure, sure. I know you guys never
seem to have as much money as my friends' parents, and that
some of our relatives do think you are just a couple
of irresponsible deadbeats. In fact, when I was growing up
I was never actually sure what it was you and Dad actually
did for a living. But I always knew that years of studying
something you loved changed your life, and continues to be
central to your work.
Parent: What are you talking about! The
closest I ever got to getting work in my field was a depressing
chain of adjunct positions--and what I do now seems pretty
far away from art history.
Child: Mom, you're talking about jobs and
not work! As Hannah Arendt says in The Human Condition,
the tragedy of modern life is that "too few people consider
what they are doing in terms of work, rather than in terms
of making a living." The "work" of your life--your life as
a citizen, thinker, parent, solver of problems, and producer
of knowledge--is what makes you who you really are, not the
weird jobs you've had.
Parent: Damn that liberal education--Wait
till you father hears about this, it will break his heart!
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