Why a PhD?

When I started on my late-in-life educational journey, it was not with the goal of getting a PhD. Titles and letters after my name mean little to me; my goal was to teach. Twenty years ago, I probably could have been hired in one of our schools after getting a masters degree. Today, a PhD is required, if not officially, at least on a practical basis.

So for the last six years, though my long-term goal was still to teach, my short-range goal was finishing the PhD. Now that I'm done, I have the degree but no teaching job. A bit ironic, huh?

Since it is theoretically possible to teach undergrads with just a masters degree (and a friend of mine with only a masters got a job last year), then did the time I spent in a PhD program make me a better teacher? I have thought about this a while and the answer is, Yes.

I didn't learn any thing about how to teach. I learned more content, to be sure, but what the program really did for me is teach me how to read more effectively and evaluate what I read. I am much better at doing original research, rather than relying on what others tell me.

So though I spent these last six years getting more education when I possibly could have been teaching, I think that I, and my future students, will be better in the long run.

Now I just need a job.