*A stream-of-consciousness blog post inspired by Eric B. & Rakim, "Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Music-Coldcut Remix)"
This is a journey into sound...
What if graduate school were run like the medical school "match" program? What if disciplines had to operate like the specialties and subspecialties in medicine, educating pretty much only those students they can find training spaces for? What if disciplines could/would purposefully restrict the number of students trained in some high-demand fields, thus pretty much guaranteeing that these graduates could collect higher earnings upon program completion? What if "boards" for each discipline helped to determine what post-undergrad training should look like for each field? What if these same boards required periodic "recertification" so that, no matter how subspecialized a field became, those professionals were still responsible for demonstrating their continuing expertise in some core aspect of the discipline? I don't know if any of this would work or not. And I know there is not full agreement that the match program is a good one even in medical training. But it does seem like there should be a better way to deal with this end-of-phd-program anxiety than this.
Thinking of a master plan...
It occurred to me the other day that dissertation writing is a little like cleaning your playroom. My kids' playroom is our former dining room, a big, comfortable space that always ends up a mess. "This dissertation proposal is a pigsty!" When I was little, my mother used to come into me and my sister's bedroom (we didn't have a separate playroom), look around at the mess we had made, and declare, "It looks like a tornado went through here." My mother is from the south, and she always pronounced "tornado" with a short a instead of a long a. So now my sister and I had to respond to her request to clean our room while avoiding showing disrespect by laughing at this pronounciation that sounded so foreign to our nothern ears. Back to my kids, tho. The other day I actually found myself voicing the "tornado" critique of their playroom. They had never heard that before, and they both burst out laughing. The little Mom that sometimes sits on my shoulder laughed, too. I then did something else my mother used to do: I gave each of my daughters "jobs." You, pick up all the tea party things and put them in the basket. You, put away all the stuffed animals. Now your job is to put the books back on the shelf... Then later that day it occurred to me that my dissertation task would be easier if someone broke it down into tasks for me. Then it occurred to me that folks have already done that for me. Like, my advisor will say in a meeting, "Why don't you try to contact the researchers who have done similar work and ask them for more information, unpublished manuscripts, scales under development, etc." But what do I do? I add these things to my (long) list of to-do's. Instead of seeing this as a job to be done first--a job that, once completed, will clear away enough "playroom floor space" for me to be able to see clearly what job needs to be done next.
Pump up the volume, pump up the volume...
I've decided not to go to my disciplinary conference in November. I feel a little sad about this, but at the same time I think I may be able to use that time to my advantage back here at the ranch. I have to admit, though, that the thing I'm most sad about is not missing out on some wonderful papers or posters or networking opportunities. I'm most sad about missing out on the gossip--not being there in the middle of the action, potential first hand witness to some incident of scholarly smack down, or someone saying something unplanned after one too many merlots or zinfandels, or some juicy snippet of conversation in the elevator between the lobby and the 12th floor. Is that petty and superficial of me to say I will miss the opportunity for "being in the know"? I really think that being in the gossip loop is an underappreciated part of professional socialization. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study about this.
...Cause I'm paid in full...
I need to clear out my store of blog post drafts. There are some things I have sitting around, if I haven't been able to find the inspiration to complete them by now, they're not gonna get completed. Who cares at this point what I think of the whole Native American college mascot name controversy? About the differences in the ways that male profs can get away with dressing that female profs can not? Then there's all the stuff I've been wanting to do with this blog: institute (really institute) tagging, add a couple new RSS feeds of new academic blogs I have come across recently, redesign my banner, respond to a couple of comments to the blog, add a section for family science blogs. That last in particular is something I want to do. But. Why is my discipline such a latecomer to blogging--to many aspects of technology and new media generally? Academic lawyers have their "Blawgs." Academic historians have their History News Network blogs. Personal finance, natural science, medicine and health, and education are among the many areas that have blog "carnivals." But not, to my knowledge, human/child development and family science. I'd start one, but I imagine 90% of the blogs would come from right here at the U of Minn. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, tho.
Good night, kids.
Alright. I'm done. Next time I'll go back to my (slightly) more coherent posting.
I care about what you think of the whole Native American mascot controversy! I went to UND--home of the "Fighting Sioux" and am an outspoken supporter of a name change. No alumni dollars from me (of course, they don't need to know that I don't really have any, but someday I might) until there's a different mascot on the field.
Posted by: Laurene at August 12, 2005 12:43 PMI adore your tornado swept playroom metaphor for dissertation writing. May I use it sometime?
And I would like to see your thoughts about professorial clothing -- I've been having a lot of fun reading and responding to so many posts on the topic.
Posted by: Academic Coach at August 13, 2005 09:42 PMBy all means use the playroom metaphor! My mother would be honored.
And Laurene, I guess I will re-think deleting that mascot post. Quick peek: I ask "Do people (perhaps, some people) ever (perhaps, under some circumstances) have the *right* to be bigoted?" It seems to me that in recent years, that seems to be the route some folks take: not apologizing for biased views or hiding them, but claiming a right to them, for instance based on their "heritage" or "historical accuracy" or "tradition"...
Posted by: Yvette at August 13, 2005 10:13 PM