Frightening Thought

I cannot believe I just had this thought.

Really and truly astonished by it.

Maybe I should get my Ph.D.

Not right now, of course... I am still way up to my eyes in dual masters degrees.

Not sure I actually need one, but I just realized that if I could teach cross cultural child studies that I would be good at teaching that.

I am in a class called Early Childhood Social Development and in reading classmates discussion board posts, realize just how much need there is. I am really enjoying responding to them and helping them see how ethnocentric their views are. Many take our culture's practices to be the "natural" and correct way to raise children. Many are human development majors. I kinda fear for the world's children since what "works" (ok I could debate this for hours on end) for American children is not an exportable plug and play package, yet people (the 'authorities") are starting to do that. Eeeeeeeeeeeek! Think about how the Missionaries impacted cultures around the world. Exporting our approach to correct child rearing practices is just as frightening.

I could probably teach with my master's in anthro, but to get an elusive tenure track position, I would have to have the Ph. D. It won't happen. I have too much going on in my next 10 years to add that to it.

I am just astonished that I actually considered it without that knee jerk "no freakin" way response.

I am, actually, gulp, highly focusing on getting a Federal job. What makes it frightening is that here in Dayton, most of the Federal jobs are very tied to the military and I am not a big fan of killing people or supporting the killing of people. Yes, I know my tax dollars pay for the military and the execution of prisoners, but still... anyway, it makes the absolute most sense if I can find something that will meet my needs for pay and job satisfaction. It will also allow me to transfer back to CA if I am not retired before coming back. I kinda hope I will be retired, because that will mean that mom will have lived into her late 90's (if she is healthy, I very much want that). If I am retired it won't matter, but if not, I can transfer and then retire with a government pension along with (or in place of SS).

Ok, back to my studies. Just needed to purge that Ph.D thought!