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Career(s): Schooling |
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As in the case of employment, schooling as an aspect of one’s life story sports a fairly well-defined beginning, whereas its end gets tangled up in definitions and in the complexities of real life. In a very important way, isn’t this whole mortal enterprise just one big school, with learnings to be seized as the educational conveyor-belt whizzes past? On the other hand, we spend a lot of time looking forward to a sequence of completions and commencements, rejoicing in them, and then trying to exploit what we have gained in them.
When the family kindly gathered around to celebrate my doctoral commencement at Harvard, I was mostly glad to leave my formal academic career behind. Except, of course, that it seemed for a while as if I might stay in the classroom indefinitely, on the other side of the teacher’s desk. And I did remark casually to Valerie that it might be nice to go back and take a second doctorate, this time at MIT, building on past achievements and working more Forresterian applications into it. She gulped and asserted that she’d support me, if that was what I really wanted to do. But we were both pretty much glad to let the subject drop. Had you noticed that I’ve become linked to a real treasure, in that young lady? I’ve always been a capable student: the record’s clear on that. As will appear within this chapter, despite a distinguished heritage, I’m not similarly gifted as a classroom teacher. You’d think I’d have figured that out earlier. |
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As in the case of employment, schooling as an aspect of one’s life story sports a fairly well-defined beginning, whereas its end gets tangled up in definitions and in the complexities of real life. In a very important way, isn’t this whole mortal enterprise just one big school, with learnings to be seized as the educational conveyor-belt whizzes past? On the other hand, we spend a lot of time looking forward to a sequence of completions and commencements, rejoicing in them, and then trying to exploit what we have gained in them.
When the family kindly gathered around to celebrate my doctoral commencement at Harvard, I was mostly glad to leave my formal academic career behind. Except, of course, that it seemed for a while as if I might stay in the classroom indefinitely, on the other side of the teacher’s desk. And I did remark casually to Valerie that it might be nice to go back and take a second doctorate, this time at MIT, building on past achievements and working more Forresterian applications into it. She gulped and asserted that she’d support me, if that was what I really wanted to do. But we were both pretty much glad to let the subject drop. Had you noticed that I’ve become linked to a real treasure, in that young lady? I’ve always been a capable student: the record’s clear on that. As will appear within this chapter, despite a distinguished heritage and the guidance of my patriarchal blessing, I’m not similarly gifted as a classroom teacher. You’d think I’d have figured that out earlier. |
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Such a Life Contents |
Chapter 1 (1941-1946) |
Chapter 2 (1946-1958) |
Chapter 3 (1958-72) |
Chapter 4 (1972-2002) |
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