I wanted to be a teacher because it felt right, I enjoyed studying and interacting with people of any age and I enjoyed explaining. So, I attended the nearest teacher's college, which was close by and quite inexpensive. (It was subsidized by the government.) However, when I really got into the courses on how to teach, in my third year of college, I was appalled. The courses were for those in training for elementary school teaching, for students in the 1st to 6th year. I felt there was too much emphasis on making attractive bulletin boards and too little on the psychology of young kids and their situation in life.
(Later, when I was a teacher educator myself, I realized that a big part of my problem was the transition I was going through from being a student to being responsible for the education of others. I might have benefited from a little more occupational philosophy and personally-oriented psychology.)
I was young and full of misguided temper. I had never taught and never trained anyone to teach but I was sure my critical feelings were on target and appropriate. Later, when I learned that I could not continue teaching without a master's degree, I first tried working in the direction of math and science. But the limitations of my previous studies meant quite a bit of preliminary coursework, which I had insufficient funds and interest for. So, I cast about for a good direction and figured that if I had had such distaste for my teaching training, I should work for clarity as to what the best training and educational methods were. On the way to a master's degree, I got redirected to my doctorate in measurement, statistics and experimental design.
So, I have spent quite a time using the heading of 'research' in my thinking and my work. I feel personally justified in spending money for an electric shaver and then finding that I don't like the relatively expensive little machine and happily return to an inexpensive razor and shaving cream. I put the foray into electric shaving under the heading of 'research and experimentation' and am satisfied with the expense and effort.
I find that a great many things in this modern American world can be put down to trying things out. I realize that taken to extremes, any sort of lifestyle can be put down to research. A major difficulty is that YOLO, "You only live once". So, you can experiment with being a vagabond or a millionaire but you aren't going to have the life time to run through many lives.
Still, I think many of the struggles and questions of our lives can be helped with experiments, formal and informal. Trying a new sort of computing or communication, a new sort of domestic arrangement, new places to travel, new and different books - there are many sorts of research and experimentation that have low costs and big payoffs. And there is the fun of being an explorer of one kind or another.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
