Therookieprofessor

Truth or Dare

"I always knew I'd teach when I got too old and ugly to be on TV," is how Amy Atkins joked about her decision to go into teaching to the Communicator, the magazine of the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

Looking for inspiration, I checked out Mike Cavender's article, "From Classroom to Newsroom," in the February issue. True, I did get some rah-rahs for journalists-who-would-be-professors. Like the thrill ex-newsjocks get from working with people who can still be molded and shaped. But Cavender expounds on many of the pitfalls:

--The rat race to achieve tenure track.

--Pay so low that he urges you to think about a second job.

--Open hostility between the haves -- those who flaunt PhDs or master's degrees -- and the have-nots -- those who enter academia via the newsroom.

We'll see.

--Posted by Jon, the rookie professor, about to sell my house.

posted by Jon and/or Kamilah @ 12:39 PM