Hi. I'm a recent lurker who finds he needs advice.

Which should tell you all you need to know about said recommendation's credibility.

Yes.

I wish there were a way for me to wave a magic wand and show you how the different scenarios would play out. If I could, I believe I could show you that if you don't stop exploring the degree -- at least briefly -- and, instead, go concentrate on getting out from under the thumb of a tyrant and a bully so you can get control of your life back, you'll waste more time than you'll save. Good decisions are never made with a gun to one's head. Disarm your employer in your life before deciding anything!

One can only hope.

Oooh. That was pretty good. Stop it, dammit!

Are you saying that you're actually not?

 

It sounds to me like you're kind of interested in teaching but that you don't really know for sure -- that other options might be interesting, too.

If I were in your shoes here is what I'd do.

1. Stabilize the current employment and home situation so that I can actually work on moving forward. It might require changing jobs or place or location or job description or something...

Forget about trying to get a quick degree. Not only is that pretty useless in one's personal development but you may end up stressing yourself to death trying.

2. Enroll at Hays State College in thier bachelor of general studies program. This is broad enough to take into account your current credits, credits you might get through CLEP or other evaluation, and it is general enough that you could use the degree in a number of areas. AND you pay in-state tuition if you are in their virtual college.

3. At the end of the program see if you are eligible for a provisional teaching license in Arkansas in their non-traditional teacher preparation program. This would allow you to work as a teacher while you do "student teaching."

You may or may not qualify for this. Check out the TeachArkansas website.

Of course, you can always go a different direction with the degree and you don't have to wait until you graduate to see what the teaching requirements are.

 

I've started looking... for many things. 1) The school I will be attending (DL). 2) A new job. Both are hard. The school for time, the job for... a job. Good paying jobs around here are rare. But I'm going to try at thte only real place I stand a chance in making any money while going to college. Actually the place I'm hoping to get on at has a college reimbursement program. The only bad part is not knowing if they have any positions in anything that I'm good at. I'm willing to wait it out though. I'll get that new job and that new education and I've decided to go the teaching route. Still trying to figure out the best DL school to do that on though. And/or to go the provisional teaching route after getting a degree in history.

I want to thank everyone again. Thanks.

 

Another option is to get the bachelor's in history first and then get a credential-track master's in education, such as:

Liberty University www.liberty.edu
University of Maryland University College www.umuc.edu
University of South Alabama http://usaonline.southalabama.edu

Of course, for the MA and PhD in History, you'll want to check out these threads:

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19182
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18092

 

Welcome to the board and I hope you stay awhile!