Resolved: More School
MOST FOLKS DON���T teach and write about a topic until after they���ve earned a degree in the subject. Owing to my career path, and the nebulous nature of my specialty, I���ve done the opposite���with the next step coming in 2022.
I went to law school just after college because���frankly���I had no better plan. I enjoyed being a lawyer, but I knew it wasn���t my passion, so I went into teaching. I loved it. I taught various humanities, mainly at the high school level.
One subject that stuck with me was economics. A school administrator asked me to teach econ because he figured I knew about it as an attorney. The man clearly didn���t know lawyers. Still, I liked it, except that the texts kept addressing students as ���future participants��� in the world of economics, even while I watched them work, shop and otherwise already be a part of consumer culture. On top of that, the world of textbook theory���with its assumption of conscious rational decision-making���isn���t actual reality.
I also saw how my sons, still in elementary school, were already having their consumer habits shaped like stalagmites by constant media drips. Adult marketers told them saving wasn���t as fun as spending, and that they were a nobody if they didn���t show their individualism in the same way everyone else was or didn���t collect all of whatever was the latest hot thing.
I started reading. I dug up my old college psychology books. I studied behavioral economics from Thorstein Veblen ��to Richard Thaler. I pored over books on how to��market��to young people, and then used their strategies to create lessons on how to counter them and empower youth. I published articles and wrote books in the then-nascent area known as consumer economics and media literacy. The field was new, so no one had a degree.
Now, I���m retired. My wife and I call this our ���third life,��� our time to wander and wonder. If you���ve read our stuff, you know we have done just that. We traveled and lived abroad. We have now returned to Dallas, but that doesn���t mean our wandering and wondering have stopped. We���re taking it inwards���by going back to school.
There���s still no degree specifically in media literacy, but the University of Texas at Dallas offers an MAIS, or Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. With much trepidation, I wrote the dean a long letter that basically asked, ���Am I crazy?��� She wrote back and then we spoke on the phone, sketching out a program combining a bit of economics, marketing, communication and psychology. She offered to waive the GRE and other entrance requirements, given that I already had a law degree. She made it easy and welcoming. How could I say no?
At age 60, I plan to be back at school this spring. I���m scared and excited. It will probably cost $36,000 to $45,000 when all���s said and done, plus a lot of time and effort. Can I remember how to be a student after 35 years? Can I hack it academically? And what do you wear to school dances nowadays?
It���s daunting. But I feel that���in my retirement���I now have the money and time to follow my passion. It���s just taken a lifetime of experiences to figure out what that passion is.
I went to law school just after college because���frankly���I had no better plan. I enjoyed being a lawyer, but I knew it wasn���t my passion, so I went into teaching. I loved it. I taught various humanities, mainly at the high school level.
One subject that stuck with me was economics. A school administrator asked me to teach econ because he figured I knew about it as an attorney. The man clearly didn���t know lawyers. Still, I liked it, except that the texts kept addressing students as ���future participants��� in the world of economics, even while I watched them work, shop and otherwise already be a part of consumer culture. On top of that, the world of textbook theory���with its assumption of conscious rational decision-making���isn���t actual reality.
I also saw how my sons, still in elementary school, were already having their consumer habits shaped like stalagmites by constant media drips. Adult marketers told them saving wasn���t as fun as spending, and that they were a nobody if they didn���t show their individualism in the same way everyone else was or didn���t collect all of whatever was the latest hot thing.
I started reading. I dug up my old college psychology books. I studied behavioral economics from Thorstein Veblen ��to Richard Thaler. I pored over books on how to��market��to young people, and then used their strategies to create lessons on how to counter them and empower youth. I published articles and wrote books in the then-nascent area known as consumer economics and media literacy. The field was new, so no one had a degree.
Now, I���m retired. My wife and I call this our ���third life,��� our time to wander and wonder. If you���ve read our stuff, you know we have done just that. We traveled and lived abroad. We have now returned to Dallas, but that doesn���t mean our wandering and wondering have stopped. We���re taking it inwards���by going back to school.
There���s still no degree specifically in media literacy, but the University of Texas at Dallas offers an MAIS, or Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. With much trepidation, I wrote the dean a long letter that basically asked, ���Am I crazy?��� She wrote back and then we spoke on the phone, sketching out a program combining a bit of economics, marketing, communication and psychology. She offered to waive the GRE and other entrance requirements, given that I already had a law degree. She made it easy and welcoming. How could I say no?
At age 60, I plan to be back at school this spring. I���m scared and excited. It will probably cost $36,000 to $45,000 when all���s said and done, plus a lot of time and effort. Can I remember how to be a student after 35 years? Can I hack it academically? And what do you wear to school dances nowadays?
It���s daunting. But I feel that���in my retirement���I now have the money and time to follow my passion. It���s just taken a lifetime of experiences to figure out what that passion is.
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