Came back from vacation and did a little catching up on my mail. One thing I read was the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education. This one piece caught my eye: "The Considerable Satisfaction of 2 Pages a Day", by Jay Parini (subscription not required to view).
At first I was inspired by the article. But the further I got into it, I became more and more uneasy. By the last sentence I was furious.
Not that I do not understand what the author was talking about. Not that I do not think that aiming to write two pages a day is a worthy goal to aspire to.
It's just that I wonder if this is a truly reachable goal--reachable, that is, for folks not positioned as I imagine Professor Parini is, or as are those he looks up to as exemplars in this article.
Read it and let me know what you think about these two questions:
1) Is writing 2 pages a day possible for scholars just starting out today in light of current expectations?
It seems that expectations have been ratcheted up several notches. For example, a CV that once would have made an assistant prof at year 5 proud now is expected of an ABD PhD student just embarking on the job market.
Parini writes that he has been in the higher ed business for 30 years. It seems to me the game has changed in that time. For example, he writes that "Two pages a day adds up to a long book every year, even counting revisions." Fine--except when the expectation is for two long books every year.
2) Is writing 2 pages a day possible for scholars who have family responsibilities?
It is telling, I think, that Parini as well as every productive scholar/writer he mentions save one are men. I'm not assuming these men did not have family responsibilities that included, say, being the back-up child care providers when their children had a fever of 103, or playing a round of Hungry Hungry Hippo between answering emails.
But I imagine that my "odd gaps of 20 minutes or so" are much more odd than theirs.
The "old joke" Parini relates highlights this for me. It is supposed to demonstrate the prolific nature of Harold Bloom. In the joke, "A student calls at the front door of Bloom's house, in New Haven. He asks to see Professor Bloom. 'I'm sorry,' says Mrs. Bloom, 'but Harold is writing a book.'"
That's not the punchline of the joke as Parini tells it. But it is for me. Wouldn't it be wonderful if folks like me had a "Mrs. Bloom" to screen calls and visits while we're working--and no doubt drop off kids at school and make dentist's appointments... HA HA HA! I am on the floor laughing out loud at that one.
Anyway, perhaps I am just being overly sensitive or pessimistic. And, even if writing two pages a day under my current circumstances is impossible, that does not mean that striving towards it wouldn't result in more productive outcomes than not striving towards it...
So. Tell me what you think.
Posted by perry032 at April 7, 2005 12:28 PM | TrackBackI agree with you that writing two pages a day has turned into two books, two journal articles, two committee meetings, two advising appointments, two research meeetings, etc. Some faculty and staff have said that if you choose to have children, then you choose to face the struggles of competiting interests of family life and academic life. I couldn't disagree more.
While the two may have largely different objectives, working environments that are conducive to family life have yielded more effective and productive employees. That said, higher education needs to take a serious re-evaluation of the demands they expect from new faculty, especially those with young children. Writing two pages a day is not a bad idea; nor is spending "two hours" a day with your children reading, going to the park, having a family meal, etcetera!
Posted by: Kevin at April 11, 2005 01:42 PMI have 5 blogs that I'm trying to maintain and the only one that even gets a post more than once a week is my son's blog (which is really more of a father's wish-I-were-home-more way of coping with being so tied up with assistantship hours and schoolwork). I think blogging is an opportunity to process thoughts, emotions, perspectives, etc. without having to organize some kind of formal support apparatus. However, it is exhausting. I wonder sometimes if I somehow feel more competent about being a PhD student if I can air some of my internal processes. And if I process things online, I wonder how other students process their stuff? And would they do their processing (in some manner) twice a day?!
Posted by: Gregg at April 12, 2005 02:39 PMI totally agree with you about two pages a day being unrealistic. As a clinical psychologist who coaches graduate students and professors, I think that having any kind of page goal can kill the spirit. Better to have a goal of writing for a reasonable amount of time most days.
Your writing is delightful, by the way.