[Shaun J. Russell]

Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett

Shaun, you will have to forgive me for reading only this far in your post, but at this point I keeled over laughing. You will be sadly disillusioned if you think that the PhD guarantees that a teacher will have "the best and the brightest" students.

No forgiveness needed! What I was going for, though I didn't really state it too well, was that if I ever do want to teach the brighter students at some juncture, I'll need my PhD. Not that having a PhD will mean that I'll necessarily be able to teach bright students.

I'm not thinking about PhD at this point though. I'm keeping my goal fairly reasonable: teaching English at a community college. If things go well for my wife and I financially and I feel the need to move on, then I'll consider the PhD route. But for the time being, I'm happy with my current trajectory, and quite certain it's what I'd like to do. I've had other careers (probably three in total), but none of them have had the balance of enjoyability and practicality. They've fallen on either side of that particular see-saw, and I'm fortunate enough to be at a point in my life where I can finally go back and "repurpose" myself.