A single step

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Lao Tsu

When I was 21 years old I graduated from Reed College with a degree in English Literature and no clue what I wanted to do next. I had always been smart, but not hardworking, and my college GPA and attitude hadn't set me up for the types of opportunities I saw many of my friends pursue directly out of college. I preferred skipping class over visiting office hours and I had cultivated few positive relationships with professors who could help me identify and pursue options for after college.

However I was, and still am, very privileged. I was privileged to receive an inheritance that supported my educational pursuits, despite my lackluster efforts, and I was privileged to have access to information and resources for applying to graduate school.

Eventually, I figured out what to do with my liberal arts degree in English: Teach! I enrolled in a a few post-baccalaureate courses in education at Portland State University (PSU). For recent college graduates, taking classes as a post-bacc is a great way to explore different options for graduate school programs and campuses. They're also a great way to make connections with the professors who will help with later program admissions (I'll provide more tips about this in a later post about getting into graduate school).

My huge lecture classes at PSU were an eye opening experience for me. I had been exposed to the small reading and conference format throughout undergrad and even high school: few of my classes had more than 15 people in them and I had never been taught by graduate students before. I am ashamed to admit that I was disdainful of my professors and my classmates at PSU. I actually believed that the mere fact of my attending Catlin Gabel and Reed College (and barely passing my classes most of the time) had prepared me so well that I would instantly and effortlessly ace all of my classes at PSU.

Small, private liberal arts colleges and prep schools are excellent at fostering intellectual freedom and curiosity; they also excel at fostering hubris! I did not ace my classes. Instead, I sat for and then failed my first midterm exam and scraped by the rest of the term, grateful that I had signed up to take the classes pass/fail.

(This was the first of many humbling experiences that taught me about what I call my "private school privilege." I learned and relearned that there are a lot of people in public schools who are smarter and work a lot harder than those of us who had the resources to attend private school. Although this seems commonsensical, it is not intuitive for most of the parents and students who attend the elite institutions. Indeed, this is one of our greatest cultural myths--who doesn't dream of having the resources to send our children to schools like Catlin Gabel, hoping it will give them an edge in life?)

I took my first education course while I was at PSU: Introduction to Education and Society. As part of this course, students were offered a practicum placement in classrooms and I was placed in a kindergarten classroom at Llewellyn Elementary School in Sellwood. I didn't know it at the time, but that practicum in Mrs Martindale's kindergarten class changed my life forever. It was the first step in my journey towards earning my degrees and launching my career in education.