chloe
New Member
Posts: 37
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Chloe
Jun 16, 2009 0:20:18 GMT -5
Post by chloe on Jun 16, 2009 0:20:18 GMT -5
Hello, everyone. I've been lurking here since I found this site through a line from the TWOP site. I'm an agnostic who was raised as a United Methodist, though much of my family is Catholic and one, my cousin, is almost certainly QF, though she doesn't discuss it with the rest of the family. But she's dresses-only with five children under eight years old and has decided to home school the eldest next year. I suspect that, in spite of the popularity of the Duggars, I'm the only one in the family who can see what path she seems to be headed down, and I'm trying to build a trusting relationship with her so that she can turn to me if she ever needs to do so. Reading the stories on this site has been really helpful in keeping the connection open with my cousin, and I thank you all, but especially the remarkable women who created this space.
In addition, I've always had an interest in groups of people who--deliberately or not--are set aside from the larger society in which they exist. The way that QF and other types of Christians describe "the World" in negative terms was something I discovered from a friend in college, and it provoked a more or less constant curiosity about such a perspective.
Me, I'm an English professor at a small liberal arts college in the southeastern United States. My field is not related in any way to this forum or website, so no one should be concerned that I'm conducting research or anything like that. In fact, I almost didn't admit my profession here, and I've never done so on other boards related to QF. I simply read in silence. Here, though, I'm planning to be a tiny bit more active, asking a few questions once in a while. I've been impressed by the variety and warmth of this site.
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Chloe
Jun 16, 2009 0:58:47 GMT -5
Post by Vyckie D. Garrison on Jun 16, 2009 0:58:47 GMT -5
Welcome Chloe ~ thanks for the intro. You are right about the fundamentalist Christians' view of "the World" ~ I personally was just sure that everything related to "the World" was perfectly evil and scary. Now that I have my kids in public school, let them hang out with "worldly" friends, have cable TV, etc. ~ I'm really amazed to discover that none of it is so horrible as I imagined. An English professor, huh? Wow ~ I'm so jealous.
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chloe
New Member
Posts: 37
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Chloe
Jun 16, 2009 1:13:09 GMT -5
Post by chloe on Jun 16, 2009 1:13:09 GMT -5
It's a fun and satisfying career, but, to be honest, there are now probably two or three hundred applicants for every full-time job (history, by the way, is nearly as bad as English). And those are the applicants with Ph.D.s. Once a Master's degree would be enough to teach at a community college, but not so much anymore. I can't tell you the number of brilliant people doing amazing work I know who are unemployed or struggling by teaching a class or two at three or four different institutions with no benefits. I got very, very lucky. And both of us are up too late.
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Chloe
Jun 16, 2009 4:38:44 GMT -5
Post by castor on Jun 16, 2009 4:38:44 GMT -5
Chloe, welcome.
What is a community college? I keep hearing that term. What is the difference between a community college and a university? I really don't know anything about the American school system. Where, for example, are people who want to be carpenters, or flight attendants, or car mechanics educated? I assume it's not at a university, so is it at a community college, or somewhere else?
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Chloe
Jun 16, 2009 12:55:38 GMT -5
Post by AustinAvery on Jun 16, 2009 12:55:38 GMT -5
Welcome Chloe,
To just take a wild stab: Centre College? Davidson?
I came here initially to explain "community college" to castor. I became familiar with hundreds of schools when I was a college recruiter (for Grinnell) some years back. But as a professor, you are probably better suited to explain the term than I, so I'll leave it to you.
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chloe
New Member
Posts: 37
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 0:16:38 GMT -5
Post by chloe on Jun 17, 2009 0:16:38 GMT -5
I'm using "community college" as a catch-all term for 2-year institutions that give an associate's degree, but no bachelor's degrees (which usually take four years). In the middle of the twentieth century these were called "junior colleges," and in some areas of the country, depending on the courses of study offered, they are called "technical colleges." They've been in the news a lot in the last few years because their tuition is usually much lower than those of 4-year colleges and universities, so students can do their first two years more economically and then transfer to another institution to finish their bachelor's degrees, if that's what they want to do. In addition, some universities have agreements with certain community colleges that guarantees a full transfer of credits (Santa Fe CC, for example, has this arrangement with U. of Florida).
And you might have heard about them because there have been some minor recruiting scandals involving universities using certain ccs as "feeder schools" for their basketball programs.
My school is a 4-year liberal arts college, but I'm going to avoid naming it for now; my students spend a lot of time on-line and even "friend" me on facebook, and I'd rather they not be able to track what I say on this board in case I want to speak freely about my cousin. They've managed to hack our electronic transcript program twice already.
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 11:11:36 GMT -5
Post by castor on Jun 17, 2009 11:11:36 GMT -5
Chloe, thanks.
I don't think we have schools comparable to community colleges in the Netherlands. I might be wrong though. At universities the lowest degree is a bachelor's degree. It was introduced, in, I think 2002, to make Dutch education more "international". Before this happened a master's degree was the lowest degree to be received at a university. After your master you could go for your PhD, or stop studying of course. Right now it's, bachelor (almost everyone goes for their master after this), then master (almost everyone stops studying after this), then PhD. We do have associates degrees on another "level" of education (I just learned this, when I looked up associate degree, to be completely sure that we didn't know it in the Netherlands). On the HBO-level. This is the level of education that comes right under university level (in difficulty).
So... now I understand what a community college is. But I still don't know where people go who, to use the same examples as last time, want to be carpenters, or flight attendants, or car mechanics. They are educated somewhere, aren't they?
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 11:24:37 GMT -5
Post by jemand on Jun 17, 2009 11:24:37 GMT -5
I *think* those people either just apprentice or get a random associates degree and then apprentice. I think there used to be tech schools, I think there are very few now. Sometimes there are tech related courses at regular schools where you can learn a trade skill-- welding for example.
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 11:31:21 GMT -5
Post by rosa on Jun 17, 2009 11:31:21 GMT -5
That's a Technical college, which often is part of a community college, or an adult education wing of a state university. Some unions and corporations also run their own technical schools (Ford has/had one a few miles from where I live.) So for example, in my small home town there is a community college that is a part of the state college and university system. At that college you can take the first two years of your bachelor degree and get credit that is good at any of the state universities. You can also take remedial courses required to get into the state university. Or you can get a 2 year Associates degree to be a nurse's aide, a carpenter or electrician, or I think a computer technician. They have talked in the past about adding a degree for maintenance on wind turbines, as that's a growing industry there. The Minneapolis Community Technical College by where I live now offers academic courses that feed into the University of Minnesota, and also technical degrees in drafting, accounting, nurse's aid, early childhood development, sound technician/DJ - and because we are an airline hub, air traffic control and airplane technician. You can also take "adult continuing education" courses in things like African American History, cooking, and foreign languages, that are not for academic credit. And of course, like everying in the US, community and technical colleges vary widely from state to state. But in general we don't have too much of a separation of the trade schools from the academic schools until the end of the Bachelor's degree.
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 12:08:24 GMT -5
Post by castor on Jun 17, 2009 12:08:24 GMT -5
Thanks Jemand and Rosa! I feel so ignorant asking these questions. But I'm glad some people want to answer them no matter how stupid they may sound .
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 13:58:31 GMT -5
Post by rosa on Jun 17, 2009 13:58:31 GMT -5
It's not ignorant at all. Even in the US, if you live in one state or region all your life you're likely to think the whole country's education system is like yours...and it's not. I remember how shocked a student from New York was when he learned that many of us from other states didn't have to take a graduation test to get a high school diploma.
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Chloe
Jun 17, 2009 17:57:47 GMT -5
Post by AustinAvery on Jun 17, 2009 17:57:47 GMT -5
Just to add my 2 cents: Carpenter: learn on the job. Medical technician: itt-tech.edu/Auto mechanic: www.uti.edu/There are numerous trade schools, as well as trade programs in technical schools.
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Chloe
Jun 19, 2009 8:17:03 GMT -5
Post by enlightenmentgirl on Jun 19, 2009 8:17:03 GMT -5
Yay, another English professor! What is your specialty? I have an MFA in creative writing and my academic specialty is eighteenth-century British novel. I'm fascinated with the real distrust and antipathy the extreme Christian right has toward the Enlightenment. I'm also amused (and alarmed) at how they try to twist the Founding Fathers into modern fundamentalist Christians so they can convince others this nation was created as a Christian state.
Anyhoo, to add my two cents to the trade school/community college discussion: My dad was a carpenter and the union he belonged to did offer an apprenticeship program. It may still do so. So that's another way to get into the skilled trades.
My own state university is offering a voluntary buyout program for staff and part of the package is up to $10k for retraining. Sometimes I am tempted to take the offer and learn to become an auto mechanic or plumber. I can always read _Sir Charles Grandison_ in the evening.
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chloe
New Member
Posts: 37
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Chloe
Jun 19, 2009 14:18:57 GMT -5
Post by chloe on Jun 19, 2009 14:18:57 GMT -5
Yay, another English professor! What is your specialty? I'm a medievalist, though I've taught everything from Homer to Milton, as well as a certain amount of 18-20th century lit as well, plus detective fiction, science fiction, and children's lit. Aside from Blake and Burns, most of my experience in the 18th century is in French literature, however.
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Chloe
Jun 20, 2009 21:59:54 GMT -5
Post by krwordgazer on Jun 20, 2009 21:59:54 GMT -5
Hi, Chloe!
I majored in English in college! Glad you're here! ;D
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Chloe
Jun 21, 2009 10:22:19 GMT -5
Post by xara on Jun 21, 2009 10:22:19 GMT -5
Hi Chloe,
I also majored in English (writing) and philosophy in college. Welcome.
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Chloe
Jul 10, 2009 16:22:21 GMT -5
Post by tapati on Jul 10, 2009 16:22:21 GMT -5
Hi Chloe, and welcome! (I'm catching up on intros I've missed)
Yes it's wise to obscure your location a bit. I found that out the hard way.
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