Entrance essay
I chose to pursue graduate studies at this time for several reasons. First, having spent more or less a decade teaching, I realize that the learning I get from attending seminars and updating my reading materials is to a large extent different from the breadth and depth I would get should I return to being a student. We are all perpetual students should we so choose, yes, but the learning you acquire on your own (or even with a mentor) is limited to what you have been trained to accept as credible or acceptable – at most times you fit what you learn and read into the suit of your own understanding, being a mild Procrustes of sorts; whereas learning in a classroom environment, with a full-blooded instructor in front of you propelled by the winds of discourse trains the mind to stretch itself in its own framework and standards of acceptance – you learn that the suit of your own understanding is part of a bigger wardrobe. I need to learn, and learn as a student, not as a teacher, els