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The inspiration for this post came to me after reading a news piece on Inside Higher Ed this morning: 'When College Is Not the Best Time' (Sept. 15, 2010;
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/15/leibow). Serena Golden interviewed David Leibow, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and author of the new book,
What to Do When College Is Not the Best Time of Your Life (Columbia University Press), asking him about the biggest problems faced by college students (i.e. undergrads) today. It turns out that financial or relationship difficulties are less likely to pose a significant problem for college students than academics.
According to Leibow, "College students want to succeed. They want to fulfill their own ambitions and make their parents proud. If their grades are low, and especially if they're forced to delay graduation or drop out, they feel demoralized and ashamed. Plans for further education are scrapped; career aspirations are abandoned; life trajectories are thrown off-course. If they were meeting their own expectations academically and had a few friends, most college students would be happy. And they'd be in a better position to deal with the other challenges that inevitably come along."
I am no longer a college student, and don't plan to become one ever again, but I can certainly relate to the feelings mentioned above. In fact, let's replace "college students" with Ph.D.s, and make a few other changes, and then see how the same paragraph takes on a new meaning:
"
College students Ph.D.s really want to succeed. They want to fulfill their own ambitions and make their parents proud;
and would particularly like to find a job after spending their entire lives in an academic bubble. If their
grades chances of gainful/meaningful employment are low, and especially if they're forced to delay graduation or drop out
or leave the ivory tower entirely, they feel demoralized and ashamed.
Their judgemental advisors, and the seeming life of ease enjoyed by other, successful academics on the tenure track, make them feel like shit. They turn to drink or drugs or bad T.V. and contemplate teaching high school. Plans for further education are scrapped
(I mean, really, what's the point anymore?); career aspirations are abandoned
(tenure-track job? HA! As if!); life trajectories are thrown off-course
(subsistence farming in someone's backyard becomes a distinct possibility). If they were meeting their own expectations academically,
found work after graduation, got laid, and had a few friends, most
college students Ph.D.s would be
pretty happy.
(This is because they still believe the myths of the tenure track). And they'd be in a better position to deal with the other challenges that inevitably come along,
like their own imminent mortality."
AMEN.
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2 comments:
OK, I'll admit I think most psychiatrists are twits and I'm very skeptical about this "want to succeed" thing at the undergrad level. But THUMBS WAY UP on applying it to PhDs, as it is exactly right -- right down to the midlife, what-the-f**-have-I-done moment.
For get higher degree now we can see more people face many problems.I think this is not dissatisfaction for educators that they lost their way to get success. We need just wait with relax and hard work to get this higher degree.
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