Working in Academia doesn’t make you an Academic.
This thought struck me today as I sat at my desk reading something over at @owlasylum ‘s blog and was blown away. The thoughts and responses he garnered from so many different people to one question were so well written and precise that it made me feel bad that I wasn’t invited to answer this particular question. The I asked myself would I have been able to answer the question as well as the featured respondents? I then thought of how I want to be considered an academic but truth be told, I’m really not an academic. Funny, because I work in a school setting. But in the fine world of Education, what distinguishes the faculty from the Staff? Are you less Academic if your a staff member vs. a faulty member?
Why do I say I love learning but feel I haven’t truly learned anything in awhile? How do we learn not in a classroom? Life’s lessons are far more important and actively used than those taught from textbooks, but how was I to do it? Do I stay tuned on CNN? BBC? Do I watch Discovery Channel and the History Channel with my notepad in tow? Do I become a TV snob and spend my idle time in non-fiction books? Do I have to quote great orators to seem smart? What is smart? To my cousins in the ‘hood’ I’m ‘maadd smart yo’ but as I read these responses I felt incredibly stupid?
Because I have the power of Google and Wikipedia at my hands, does this mean I have what it takes to be a member of the academics? How many times have we (or maybe just me) passed along pseudo knowledge from random internet sources? What can I do to feel as if I’m really a credible source of knowledge? Is this a struggle within or is this something I need to have validated by peers and the outside world?Where is all this coming from? Probably because I’m feeling nervous as I begin my grad school application. Or from the fact that its college graduation season and I feel like I’ve waited so long to get back in the game for grad school. Maybe because I hate standardized test (they aren’t an accurate measure of intelligence) and I have to study for the Graduate Record Exam. Or maybe I’m just feeling crazy insecure.
But you know what, surrounding myself with intelligent people in real life and in the e-world makes me feel like I have to do better. You know, every group of friends has that one who is kind of in the background or who always has a novel idea that never comes to fruition, well that won’t be me. I want to shine net to everyone else. So, look out for PFE (Possible Future Endeavors) from me.
Oh.. I guess this means I’m back bitches! More regularly scheduled updates.