Why I’m on Medium

I’m an intellectual, not an academic; let me explain.

(Photo by author of artwork on a building demolished in 2016.)

I have a friend who teaches languages. She is very, very good at it; so good that the government contracts her to teach some of their people. She could have a job at any number of prestigious universities. Instead, she teaches at a community college because, she says, she wants to help underprivileged students.

My friend is a saint and I admire her greatly. She is doing far more good in the world teaching immigrants and the children of immigrants than being a chair of a snooty Ivy League school. She is using her talents more constructively.

I am no saint, but I have values similar to those of my friend. I trained to be a professional philosopher. I spent the nine years required and earned my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. What I was “supposed” to then do with that Ph.D. was make the rounds of obeyances at philosophy departments around the world until I glad-handed my way into a tenure-track position and be admitted into the ol’ boys’ club.

Uh, no, thank you. No offense, but my time and energy are better spent in other pursuits. That is what I have done.

That doesn’t mean I have abandoned higher education. I teach university courses, because like my friend, I want to help students. I don’t just have a Ph.D. in philosophy, I am a…