Tag: HGSE

Things I Know 117 of 365: I am going to Harvard

Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

– Samuel Johnson

Mid-March, I found out I was accepted to the Harvard Ed School’s master’s program in Ed Policy and Management.

Toward the end of March, I had an idea for helping to overcome what appeared to be the largest hurdle to actually attending the program – paying for it.

While the idea didn’t make up the difference, it did subsidize approximately 11 percent of what I needed to attend.

As it became clear my audacious goal was just that, I started to become as knowledgeable as I’ve ever been about student loans.

Somewhere in there were more frequent phone calls home than I’ve probably ever made since moving out.

I’ve decided to do it.

I’m going to Harvard in the Fall.

I’ll be honoring my commitment to those who graciously donated to Chasing Harvard. I’ll also be proud owner of some substantial student loans.

I want this.

A great deal of my decision was made when I attended the open house for newly admitted students. Admittedly, I was (and still am) cautious about some of the rhetoric coming out of the school. I was worried I’d have no one with whom I would connect, that SLA and schools like it would be an impossibility in the minds of people I met.

I did meet and hear from some people with whom I adamantly disagreed. I also met and heard from people who thought deeply and passionately about many of the same ideas I hold dear.

That is the kind of environment in which I want to learn.

I’ve always sought a plurality of ideas. My most invigorating conversations are those with people who will argue against me just as ardently as I argue against them while both of us are seeking to understand.

I am not so naive as to believe I’ll be entering some sort of modern Lyceum. All I hope for is a program of study where my ideas will be challenged and where I am free to challenge the ideas of those around me. I’ve found that.

Also key to my decision is the ability to cross-register in the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Law School – you get the idea.

I want that.

While I realize I’ll be limited to the number of outside course I’ll be able to take, I want a program that allows me to blend my learning about education’s ecosystem with learning about other intellectual ecosystems.

As those systems interact and blend more and more, I want to study and understand those interactions.

I want this.

What scares me, what I don’t want, is to leave SLA.

I’m sure I’ll write later about what I’ve learned and what it means to leave. This is about where I’m going, not where I’ve been.

Let me just say that it is a testament to the people I learn alongside every day how difficult it will be to leave.

In the end, I turned to Samuel Johnson’s thinking in “Rasselas.” Trying to understand happiness and how to acquire it, Johnson’s protagonist learns reaching for one thing means giving up another. In the end, one must make a choice and be content.

I am.

Things I Know 90 of 365: My brain is fried

I am thrilled yet overwhelmed.

– Nancy Green

I know two things at the moment:

1. My brain is fried.

2. This is where I want to be.

For number two, I don’t mean the couch in the house my cousin shares with 4 other undergrads in Boston. It smells like stale cigarette smoke and post-modern angst.

No, #2 refers to the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Until today, the only time I’d spent on Harvard’s campus was the admissions meeting I scheduled early last August when applying was a nascent idea.

Today was the open house for a chunk of those newly admitted to Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

For an indication of the day’s activities, see #1 above.

I should have known what I was in for as soon as Maria Curcio, Director of Admissions, listed the demographic info of the accepted class:

  • 44 states represented (28 present today)
  • 72 percent female (do the math on the male)
  • 29 percent students of color (as they self identified)
  • 4.3 years of professional work experience

That last one stuck with me for a while.

By the end of this school year, I’ll have 8 years of classroom experience.

I still remember the deal I made with myself before I started my first year of teaching, “You wen’t to school for this, you might as well give it a year and then decide what you want to do.”

Throughout the day, when I’d introduce myself and we’d exchange biographical pleasantries, whoever I met would respond with some variation of “whoa” when I told them how long I’ve been in the classroom.

I can’t decide if I feel wizened or just plain old.

For now, I’m going with wizened.

Speaking of, I’m wiser now as to my intended sequence of study for next year. It’s amazing how that becomes clear when you’ve got someone to explain the requirements to you.

The Ed Policy and Management program requires 8 courses. Interestingly, it has no core or required courses.

What is required, though, is one class each in policy, management, and research. Additionally, students must choose one A and one S course. A courses refer to those courses specific to the program. S courses refer to those courses offered school-wide.

That leaves three courses of choice .

Those three courses are a considerable draw for the EPM program. Students are allowed to cross-register in courses at Harvard Law, The Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Business School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

As a sizable portion of my personal statement was dedicated to the idea that those responsible for education should learn cross-disciplinarily if they’re to tackle the most complex of issues, the ability to cross-register provides just that.

I’m not entirely certain what courses I’ll find myself in or in which school; that will be decided by need.

Luckily, as I learned today, the Career Services office has a program in the summer called the gap assessment which helps students work through their resumé while mindful of their employment goals and then aids students in their selection of courses to fill those resumé gaps.

More than a brain BBQ, that was what I got from today – it filled the gaps.

I can see next year. It’s not crystal clear yet, but it’s starting to come in to focus.