You would assume that being an English professor should be quite enough to secure your livelihood but sadly, that’s not always the case. Ellen James-Penney is an English professor at San Jose State University and loves her job.
Her biggest problem is that she doesn’t have a home of her own and currently lives in her car.
A homeless college professor
As crazy as it may sound, Ellen can’t afford a house as she earns just $25,000 a year.
“You don’t know how I feel at 9:30 at night sitting backward headlamp on grading papers,” Ellen told local media.
Ellen loves being a professor and gives her best to live a normal life, despite the predicament she’s in. In fact, she is so passionate about her profession that she won’t give up her job as an English professor, in spite of the low wage and being homeless.
Ellen is far from being the only homeless college professor
Ellen is not the only college professor who lives on a low income and can’t find housing. Michelle Mitchell has two master’s degrees and teaches religion at Florida’s Broward College but that’s not enough to have a house so she is forced to live in her van.
Asked whether she finds this fact shocking, Michelle answers with a simple ‘Yes’. We also find it quite shocking, as well as sad. It’s hard to imagine what Michelle and Ellen are going through. After working hard to obtain their degrees they are now forced to live in a parking lot!
Michelle keeps her important documents under the seat. It’s a vivid reminder of the difficulties she is facing every day. Michelle uses the school bathroom to get ready and heats up her meals in the cafeteria.
“I can’t keep doing this and live in a car”
Ellen is well-aware of how difficult her situation is.
“Even though I love teaching, even though I have such passion for it, I can’t keep doing this and live in a car,” she said.
As the nights grow colder, Ellen says that she’s already had meningitis twice. Nevertheless, she still keeps a positive attitude and even jokes with her students at her own expense.
“I tell my students ‘I love you dearly, but I’m going to love you from a distance,’ and then I get the hand sanitizer out,” she says.
It’s not just Ellen and Michelle’s problem, it’s much wider
As Ellen noted, the problem she faces goes far beyond her campus. Colleges are putting profit over education and it directly impacts the quality of education as good teachers are leaving the field.
“Colleges are becoming corporations, and their concern is not education,” Ellen says. “What I want ultimately is for our society to value education, and I mean value. The majority of really good teachers leave the field. They just can’t afford it. It’s sad.”
We really wish for this story to have a happy ending but some problems are simply too complex to be solved overnight. As a society, we need to put knowledge over profit and value people like Ellen and Michelle, who love what they’re doing and pass on their knowledge to the coming generations.
Source: YouTube
