The media and political figures who want to attack or discredit higher education in this country usually claim that college faculty are out of touch with the “real world” or that we live in an “ivory tower.” Not only is this a tired and cliched notion, but it just isn’t true. Some of these so-called pundits probably know better — they’re just cynically trying to advance an agenda.
The truth is that college instructors are like people in every other profession. They come from many different backgrounds and many different walks of life. Most of the faculty as well as the people in leadership at the colleges I’ve taught at did not complete their graduate degrees until later in life. This means they had other jobs before teaching. They have real-world experiences long before they darkened the doorway of a classroom.
I have known professors who were engineers, graphic artists, dental hygienists, attorneys, farmers, businesspeople, chefs, ministers, accountants, EMTs, high school teachers, mental health counselors, welders, drivers, heavy equipment operators, and pilots before they taught.
On the Columbus campus of Ivy Tech, we also have veterans of the armed forces teaching classes. Our faculty have formerly worked for several local employers, including Columbus Regional Health, Cummins, and Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation. A lot of our faculty are also first-generation college graduates. Again, we come from all different walks of life.
Basically, if you can think of a job or a profession, there is probably someone on a college campus that had that job at one time or another. Before working at a college, I sold advertising for an internet start-up. This job required a lot of travel, so I was lucky to see a lot of different parts of this country. I also worked as a legislative assistant for the Indiana House of Representatives before teaching college. I even sold suits at JCPenney for a time.
There are also some of the professions that you would expect college instructors to have before they taught — librarians, researchers, and editors. But I also knew a professor who was an executive for IBM before returning to college to earn his PhD in history. I even had one professor who played professional football. He was more excited to talk about the colonists and American Indians in colonial Virginia than talk about his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
To be sure, there are some faculty members whose only job has been working at a college. They went straight through college to graduate school, earning a doctorate while still in their twenties. But they are usually the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes these people were great teachers — sometimes not.
Going to graduate school is expensive. So, many people complete their studies while they are working a full-time job. Many of us went to graduate school on the cheap — embracing a life of not having much. There were some times I lived on ramen noodles and tuna salad sandwiches when the funds got low. I scrounged and sold used books to make ends meet.
But that was a choice to live that way. One of my colleagues lived in a tent at a state park.
Another student pretty much lived in the library, sleeping on the couches and took showers in the rec gym. If we didn’t get funding for the summer, we would have to find another way to pay the bills. I worked at a summer camp while others worked at bars or restaurants. I knew one guy who managed a ranch and another who volunteered to be a guinea pig in medical studies to make money. And there are a few whose parents or someone else paid all of the bills. But that’s pretty rare.
The path to teaching at a college usually isn’t a straight one. It is filled with twists and turns, ups and downs, and all kinds of obstacles. Most faculty have tried many different things along the way to pay the bills. They’ve gained valuable experience in industry, drastically changed career paths, and lived through some tough times. Even though we have the instructor’s version of the textbook, we still don’t have all the answers. We had to learn some things the hard way, too.
Despite what you may have heard, most of us don’t live in the ivory tower.
Aaron Miller is one of The Republic’s community columnists and all opinions expressed are those of the writer. He has a doctorate in history and is an associate professor of history at Ivy Tech Community College-Columbus. Send comments to [email protected].
