Why I’m Jumping on Homeschooling my MFA

And so it begins

BestColleges.com describes an MFA in creative writing as “a program that trains you to become a skilled writer, communicator, and editor who can receive and apply feedback effectively.”

As a retired English teacher who spent 34 years teaching writing, analysis of literature, and research, I have decided to take my pursuit of an MFA in creative writing into my own hands.

WHY NOT AN MFA THROUGH AN ACCREDITED UNIVERSITY?

Several years ago, I attended the AWP conference in Chicago. (For a first conference, I was overwhelmed.) The “Book Fair” at the conference was a mix of small book presses that were presenting their most recent acquisitions, authors with their books for sale, college anthologies and information about submitting to them, and universities explaining why their MFA program is better than another. I talked with some of the representatives about the MFA program for their school. Unfortunately, none of them impressed me. I didn’t have the finances to stop working for two years and return to school, and the low-residency programs seemed outside of my working life.

So, I put the idea of an MFA in creative writing on the back burner, something to be pursued later.

THE IDEA OF AN MFA RESURFACES

In her novel, Carpe Diem, Illinois, Kristin A. Oakley uses a town that un-schools its children to present a story of mystery and suspense. Oakley, herself, is an advocate of homeschooling: homeschooling her own children and presenting workshops on homeschooling.

Creating my own educational plan for an MFA started brewing in my head over a year ago when I had a conversation with my stand partner in orchestra. She was a senior in high school (home schooled). I asked her if she was planning to go to college. Nope. She was planning on studying music privately with a professional and searching for workshops, conferences, and online courses that fit her needs.

Don’t get me wrong. I do see a need for the university experience for at least your bachelor’s degree, but I also realize that sometimes you need to take matters into your own hands.

LET’S REFLECT ON THE EDUCATION I HAD ALREADY RECEIVED

I began to reflect on my own college/university experiences.

THE BACHELOR’S DEGREE

Looking back, I realize that I wasted a great deal of time in most of my college classes.

For example, in Children’s Literature, we were expected to read a wealth of children’s books and record a synopsis of each book on a 3x5 or 4x6 index card. These cards were eventually turned in to the professor. The few of us who were planning on teaching in the upper grades got admonished half way through the term because we had fewer cards than our peers who were focusing on lower elementary education.

Dear Professor,

You can read many more picture books and stories written for first and second grades than you can young adult novels.

I learned that quantity and reading books that would never impact my teaching was more important than reading novels that I could use in my teaching.

In a different literature course, we most of the literature assigned had been written or adapted by the professor. In discussion of these pieces, we were “corrected” to what the writer ACTUALLY was writing about instead of our interpretation as a reader who was bringing their own perspective and experience to the reading table.

Dear Professor,

An interpretation of what a literary piece means is created by the words on the page and what the reader brings to the table.

I learned that it was better to keep my opinion to my self, and in many cases, didn’t even read the pieces. Instead, I took notes on what she said the piece meant.

In physics, we were taught at least three ways to solve the physics problems, but on the test, we were expected to use ONLY ONE SPECIFIC MATH EQUATION to solve the problem. Didn’t use the one the professor expected (but not directly stated) but got the right answer? Sorry. Your answer was marked wrong, and then, you were expected to meet with the professor on your own time and retake the test.

Dear Professor,

As long as my choice of equations was a valid choice, AND I got the correct answer, I should not be punished because I am not a mind reader.

I learned that it did not pay to analyze a problem and think outside the box, nor did it pay to be valid, but original.

Day ONE in my methods of teaching science course, we were introduced to the science classroom and lab and told to, without any other direction, design at least one science unit that we could/would use in our teaching. There was NOTHING included on the best, most effective ways to teach any specific topic.

Dear Professor,

Without guidelines and having taken this course BEFORE I took the course that explored how to create units and lesson plans, I floundered in the dark and learned nothing.

I learned that with enough words, and the key words to lessons and science, I could fake anything.

For the course that accompanied the half day student teaching experience, the professor assigned an observation of one student for seven weeks, keep a “journal” on that child, and at the end, write a paper based on that observation. The only concrete information given was found in the course syllabus: May 3 — Observation Paper DUE. No handouts as to format, length, or content expectations. So, I, like many of my course classmates in a college full of teaching majors, asked our peers if we could study their papers for this assignment for this particular teacher.

I read and took notes as to the format of the paper and how the content was arranged. Then, I created my own “acceptable” assignment sheet based on how the majority of papers appeared. When I had my conference on the graded paper, I was told that my Observation Paper was terrible and that I had no idea how to write and that if I wished to pass the course, I needed to re-write the entire paper (on the electric typewriter that existed in my dorm room). I was left to my own devices to figure out what was wrong with the paper.

Angry and upset, I had a couple of friends read my paper. When they sat and compared mine to theirs, none of us could understand what had happened. Then, one of my friends suggested changing where I used “he” with the student’s name and where I used the student’s name with the word “he.” Change it a couple of times on each page? Why not give it a try?

After working a few days to retype the entire seven-page paper on an ELECTRIC TYPEWRITER, I turned it in. In my second conference about the project, I was told that my revised paper was “so much better.”

Dear Professor,

I greatly question your evaluation ability or if you even actually read my paper. Did you even read the second paper I turned in, or realize that I had only changed those words? I doubt it.

I learned to thumb my nose at professors and administrators who have no clue what they are reading or talking about.

LET’S TRY A MASTER’S DEGREE — REALLY? SERIOUSLY?

Several years later, I moved on to tackle my master’s degree. Life threw me an opportunity, and I grabbed a hold of it. St. Xavier University out of Chicago was offering a cohort program for a Master’s in teaching, curriculum development, and leadership. I wouldn’t have to jump on the tollway and drive to Chicago for classes; a cohort program meant that they were bringing the classes to the city where I was teaching. I wouldn’t have to stop working because the group would meet once a week for approximately two years. Ok, it meant that I would be in class from 4:00 pm until 9:00 pm with a break for dinner, but I could work around that.

My master’s degree program wasn’t much better than my bachelor’s degree program. I learned early that all I had to do was glance at the reading assignments and half listen during class. No time to read the assigned material during the week? Listen in class. Each professor basically told us what was in the reading assignment we just read. When I took time to read during the week, I had time to brainstorm during class. Some of the courses had us working in groups to present the information to the whole class. Why read more than what your group was presenting? I earned all “A’s” in this Master’s program except for one course. I don’t remember the title of the course, but I remember getting the grade information in the mail. I had been “given” a “B,” but all my work had received good comments and good feedback (grades on assignments and projects were rarely found). When the professor appeared at the first meeting of the next semester to hand our materials back, someone asked about the grades. “If you think you deserve an “A,” then you need to call my office, set up a phone conference, and present your argument on my you deserve an “A.”

That was pre-cellphone life. Calls from Rockford/Cherry Valley to Chicago were long distance calls that cost money — money that I didn’t have. I knew I deserved that “A” but I didn’t have the money or the time to call the professor long distance and argue my case. I let the “B” ride.

Move from that experience to our “action research paper.” As a small group (I was supposed to work with two other teachers), we were to determine a common problem in our classrooms. We were expected to research the problem and develop a solution that could be useful in ALL the classrooms in our group. In this case the group of three consisted of one elementary art teacher, one lower elementary classroom teacher, and myself, a high school English teacher (that semester I had juniors and seniors).

Finding a common problem was easy; so was doing the research on the school district and the community. But that is where the ease of working in this group ended. Don’t get me wrong. The other two teachers in the group were amazing and at least we worked in the same district.

It took a lot of scheduling and rescheduling for us to even get the rough draft of the first chapter’s section on the “immediate problem context” completed. I had a wealth of paperwork, two of us had extra-curricular activities that we ran, and I had two children. Not to mention that the high school and the elementary schools had different start times and that the two other members of my “group” taught in the same school.

Because I taught research skills and college research paper format, I kept insisting that we follow ALL protocol, but my group members didn’t feel that we needed to be quite so precise as what I suggested. When we got our first draft back, there were comments on what needed to be added and redone and cited on every page.

I presented my case to work alone in a time where “group work” was expected to the professor. Since the only other two high school teachers were in a different district than I was, I was allowed to break free from the group and go it alone.

Want to read the 91-page paper, “Improving High School Students’ Critical Thinking Skills?” I have a hard bound copy in my studio, but you can access it here. (NOTE: I wrote this while I was still married to my first husband, so the last name is different.)

HOW ABOUT A DOCTORATE —OK, SURE. WHY NOT?

(OR AT LEAST AN EDUCATIONAL SPECIALIST DEGREE THAT IS 30 CREDIT HOURS SHY OF A DOCTORATE)

Move to my educational specialist degree for high school administrators. It was another opportunity ship I jumped aboard. The district paired up with Northern Illinois University to bring the program to our district so they could “grow their own administrators.” Principals and department heads suggested certain teacher apply, but anyone could apply. If you were accepted, the district picked up the tuition cost, and you picked up the cost of books and materials.

I was excited. A post-Master’s program. Surely, we would have some outstanding discussions. And yes, there were some outstanding discussions, BUT yup, you guessed it; I could scan the material and listen in class to get the material. Most of the time the professor just presented the material in the book or massive number of “handouts” we were expected to print out on our computers.

I did my time. I have the degrees. But most of the material I learned and/or implemented in my classroom was short lived.

CREATING MY PERSONAL HOME-SCHOOLED MFA

Thirty-four years of teaching in high school English departments has given me, I think, a sound idea of writing. For years, I taught vocabulary building, sentence structure (including sentence diagramming), grammar, literary analysis, research skills and research paper writing, and essay writing. I also taught the creative writing and public speaking courses.

Because of my first career, what I need in an MFA program is more than likely different than what most people need.

At least I know my expectations: I want to improve my time management skills where a writing career is involved, improve my writing skills and story development to make my stories page turners, complete a minimum of two of volumes of work (short stories and a novel), hone my self-editing skills, learn about marketing and publishing, and learn about blog monetization. If more expectations arise as I learn, I can add them.

THE PROJECT AND WHAT IT MEANS

I remember the classes in my bachelor’s, master’s, and educational specialist’s degree programs being a lot of work. I expect the same from myself here. It’s just that I am on MY TERMS. If a chapter or a book seems to tell me what I already know, I can skip it entirely. I won’t be spending class discussion time on things that I used to teach.

I WILL be venturing into new territory: learning things I didn’t know before. After all, isn’t that what education is all about? Learning about new things?

It means that I must fall back on my teacher preparation to create a plan for my own forward progress. It means that I must trust my teacher planning but be a diligent student.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

After spending 34 years in the teaching field, I can’t be selfish with what taught those many years and what I learn as I go forward.

I’d like to share with you, my readers, my module plans, my questions, my frustrations, my wins.

Rebecca (Becky) spent 34 years in a teaching career, but when she retired in 2014, she picked up her pen and pursued her passion to write. As a high school English teacher, Becky held the philosophy that she wouldn’t give any writing assignment that she personally wouldn’t or couldn’t do. That philosophy strengthened and broadened her own writing.

In addition to publishing her writing on various platforms, Becky also blogs at Life is for Living, a blog to encourage, motivate, and help others live the best life possible. As an extension of Life is for Living, she also publishes a weekly newsletter, Let’s Chat. (Check it out HERE.) Life is for Living also has a social media presence with the group Coffee on my Porch. (Check it out HERE.)

After teaching writing for 34 years, Becky began Ink & Keyboard, a blog for writers at all levels. She supplements what she writes on the blog with a subscription newsletter, The Writer’s Notebook (Check it out HERE.) and the social media group Ink & Keyboard (Check it out HERE.)