Transitions

I feel rather torn at the moment, because I'm busy ramping up into my new job, which involves working up a new course, getting training in all that stuff, trying to merge English with the student life course, trying not to be the new puppy who pees on everybody's shoes, trying to be competent in general. And trying to close out my old job.

There are lots of transitions going on this summer. I have only about six more weeks at my literacy job, and I have to try and wrap the big stuff up so that the new person is not behind from the beginning. Like I was. I had a rough training period. Well, there was no training period at all, actually. I came in and sat down and just started saying "What's this? What do I do with this? Where does that go? What's this..." The previous assistant directors had basically just shuffled any and all papers into a big pile. I remember pulling out what looked like an official looking piece of paper and asking D/B "Is this important?" It was a grant report deadline long overdue. She nearly flatlined. I don't want to pass that burden onto someone else. I'm also working on a manual for the job. I have to say I had no idea how much I did and how many little steps were involved until I had to write it as though I was explaining it to someone else. No wonder I can't keep all my responsibilities straight! On the other hand as I'm writing this and have full control over it, I get to add categories like "What Happens If I Get A Shitty Volunteer??"

D/B gets more miserable as each week comes and goes. I can't say that I blame her, really. I think part of her is a bit jealous that I'm moving on to something better when she's tried to find better jobs herself. But it's also just a general state of panic about what will happen to the office once I'm gone. I'm pretty good at handling her, so I predict a plunge in diplomacy. Sigh. It feels weird to be moving away from nonprofit. I like it so much. On the other hand, teaching is very much not for profit, as my starving grad student friends will tell you. I like the feeling of taking the bull by the horns, and I've gotten the chance with the pilot project I'm working on this fall.

I've also had to learn that I can't take on new projects for the agency right now, which has been difficult to do. I simply can't start anything new when I have to spend all my time wrapping everything up. I wanted so badly to get the tutor meetup thing started. They need it desperately. I wanted to arrange to get D/B into some management classes. There were a range of ideas, but no time to really implement them. But part of the wisdom of getting control over your schedule is knowing when to back away from it. So, I put the major projects that I have to get done on the list, and except for the asst. manual, there are no new ideas in the pipeline.

I love working with literacy issues. If I had only one shot at "saving" the world, I would aim my gun at illiteracy. It's the cause of so many other problems--it's the root of nearly everything else. When people can read, they become more involved all the way around. And it's definitely a cycle. Kids whose parents are illiterate are two to three times more likely to be illiterate themselves. The majority of people in prison have some kind of learning disorder or reading problem. It really is foundational.

But since I'm working with kids now, my new job is to keep them in college and teach them how to argue and write. They're all first generation college students. Like me. My classes all have a bent toward activism of any stripe. This past class I had a team working on the Bright movement (young atheists) and a team working on Young Life (youth religious organization). I don't care that their beliefs are different from mine. I do care that they participate. And I think one of the reasons we continue to have problems is because people are disillusioned about participation. Part of my goal is to change that attitude. I'm going to give it the old college try. Part of me gets more and more intimidated as I get into this job, for reasons I may post about later. I'm being encourgaged to "teach vanilla", if you will, or basically to go back to bland assignments until the crossover is established. I'll let those who know me stop smirking and tell you whether that's likely to happen. Sigh.

Out of the frying pan into the fire,

-- Virgil