Contract Teaching Faculty
When you’ve been around for too long
I was 34 years old when I first accepted a contract teaching position.
Background: I returned to college at age 25 and completed a history degree, followed by an MFA in Creative Writing. By the time I was 34, I’d published three works of fiction with traditional and respected publishers. I’d done community-based teaching, and felt prepared to teach at a higher level. At the time I began, the Creative Writing Ph.D. was nonexistent, and the MFA was widely considered the terminal degree.
The job
I worked within a multiple-genre writing program, teaching writing for children and young people. I worked full-time, and the genre went from being under-subscribed to full classes plus. Theses completed went from 0–1 per year to over 10. Male students had rarely taken part in the writing-for-children classes and I worked to make them feel welcome. Classes became mixed and more representative of what is actually on bookshelves.
I worked 60+ hours a week, along with raising three sons. Because I initially was filling in for a FT tenured professor on disability leave, I did her work — beyond what would have been asked of a contract teacher. I became a professor in every way but pay.
