I would like to retire. Yes, I have some things I would like to accomplish in my work, but my most recent sabbatical, devoted to research and writing on a long-postponed project, left me unfit for my old routine. In the past, I came back to the classroom all fired up to try new things and engage with young minds, and this time my mojo is definitely missing. It didn't help matters that we managed to live on half my usual salary for that year, allowing me to resurrect my frugality skills.
The reality is that I can't retire for five or six years, thanks to a series of life choices and circumstances which I either couldn't or wouldn't change. This is a big issue in higher education these days; a session on "Supporting the Culminating Stages of Faculty Careers" at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education quickly generated two news articles, one in at chronicle.com and another at Inside Higher Ed. What bothers me most about this is knowing that there are so many bright, underemployed young people waiting for the Boomers to leave. I assume that younger workers in other fields are facing the same problem.
Looming over all of this is the increasingly popular myth that Baby Boomers have been "selfish" and created all of the current economic problems, including unemployment. Just what are we supposed to do?
The reality is that I can't retire for five or six years, thanks to a series of life choices and circumstances which I either couldn't or wouldn't change. This is a big issue in higher education these days; a session on "Supporting the Culminating Stages of Faculty Careers" at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education quickly generated two news articles, one in at chronicle.com and another at Inside Higher Ed. What bothers me most about this is knowing that there are so many bright, underemployed young people waiting for the Boomers to leave. I assume that younger workers in other fields are facing the same problem.
Looming over all of this is the increasingly popular myth that Baby Boomers have been "selfish" and created all of the current economic problems, including unemployment. Just what are we supposed to do?
2 comments:
I won't risk a long and uninformed full reply to this post, but I will add this little bit of information I found on the Tubes: "The youth (16-24) unemployment rate edged up over the year to 19.1 percent in July 2010, the highest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948" according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics study I link below.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm
...and to think some people want to raise the retirement age.
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