If there was a study done that gave every profession in America an overall score based on combined difficulty, barriers to entry, importance, scarcity and how underappreciated  it is, there is no doubt in my mind that being a K-12 public school teacher would beat out all others by a wide margin. Think about it. You have to go to college, oftentimes to grad school, … Continue reading Teaching: the ultimate sacrifice

Ah, November. Dark, gray and cold. Reading Days are but a distant dream and Halloween candy has somehow already transformed into a pile of wrappers. Leaves are long gone, pumpkins lay rotting on the pavement and groundskeeping has removed the campus foliage, which means that all signs of life other than the alarmingly brazen St. Peter squirrels have disappeared. Seriously, those guys are so bold … Continue reading Gamble your troubles away

On your marks. Get set. BANG! That’s not the roar of a cheering crowd of fanatics you hear, unless you happen to be reading the paper at a hockey game, in which case, you really need to sort out your priorities. No, that’s the sound of the collective student body’s mental gears pushing into overtime. It’s that time of year: everyone’s running the Post-Midterm Six-Week … Continue reading ‘Tis (not quite) the season

We have a misconstrued conception about Student Senate. Its power comes from providing avenues for students to take up their issues with other students. But that’s the thing: they are taking these issues up with other students. Now, before I get too far into this discussion, I will say that I think Nick Prince and Jen Fox have done a terrific job as Co-Presidents of … Continue reading Beyond student senate

I have heard rumors of a place, my friends. A place after graduation. Where there is always bread on the table and a bun in the oven. I mean a baby in the oven. I mean on the table. I mean a mother in the oven. Wait. I am still a bit confused about the details, but I read it all in this book, you … Continue reading Is there life after graduation?

There is a building adjacent to Confer/Vickner. It is a good sized building: several stories high, two-thousand square feet, by my estimations. It is stone, probably made during the Stone Age. It has an odd attribute of going unnoticed. Yet many of us, like me, have had a class or two there in the past. The building, though, is locked and has sheets of paper … Continue reading Bigfoot is squatting in SSC

Here’s a typical conversation for any type of science major: “So what are you majoring in?” They answer something along the lines of biology, chemistry pre-med, etc. “Awesome! You must be so smart. You are going to make so much money someday!” Here’s a typical conversation for me: “So what are you majoring in?” they ask. “English,” I say. Long pause. “Huh. What are you … Continue reading The bonfire of the humanities