Today’s
online site for the Chronicle of Higher
Education’s The Ticker features
an article entitled “Academics’
Advice to Young Scholars Has a Familiar Ring to It.” It begins with a report on
a column by Fusion website writer Felix Salmon in which he advises budding
young journalists not to go into that profession if they can help it which
resulted in an avalanche of tweeted responses. That, in turn, prompted a
Twitter storm of commentary on the topic #AdviceForYoungAcademics.
In both
cases, the advice is pretty brutal and the overall outlook is decidedly grim.
Why do you need to be a lawyer?
I’ve long been infamous in our department for
being the recovering lawyer who tries to talk would-be attorneys out of going
to law school. Of course, that’s only half true. My goal has always been to
provide starry-eyed Boston Legal wannabes a reality check on what they’re
actually getting into before they sign the dotted lines on their student loan
papers.
I inevitably tell such students that I do not
doubt their capacities to become attorneys. Smart people can do a lot of things
but that doesn’t mean they should. What they should do is what they are called
to do. And that takes a lot more soul searching than achieving high scores on
LSATs and following a litany of advice from parents and friends who have always
said some version of “Child, you’d argue with a fence post. You should be a
lawyer!”
What my young legal eagles don’t know is that
it’s a lot easier to walk away from law school prior to entering than once a
student is there and has invested more than one pound of flesh in time, energy,
agony and money.
Truth be told, I’ve written a number of
letters of recommendation for those students I couldn’t talk out of law school
to help them get into the profession they appear hell-bent upon entering. In
virtually every case, I have felt the student had the promise of becoming a
fine attorney. As I provide their recommendation, I inevitably tell them, “All
right, now go be a good attorney. We need good attorneys.” And in virtually every
case, they have performed brilliantly in law school and many now serve
admirably as attorneys across the country.
Let’s hear it for Jedi Nation!
But the article prompted me to think about the
advice that I give my young would-be academics. I’ve taught many students who
clearly were natural teachers and whose gifts are badly needed by a largely
ungrateful public. I have never hesitated to make my observations of their
talents clear to the student and to encourage them to come talk with me about
the possibilities of a life in academia.
But the fact that I admire and care for these
students prompts me to pause in my encouragement of their vocations. Given the
state of academia today, am I really doing them a favor by encouraging them to
enter it?
My Advice
My first
attempt to articulate a response to this question came to me this morning as I
read the many brutal tweets reported in the Chronicle story. Dear Lord. I’m
glad none of these folks were my advisors in undergraduate. I do think the
realpolitik element needs to be faced by would-be academics. But it’s simply
not the whole story.
So here is
the response I finally submitted to the Chronicle site:
My advice to
a potential academic would be to follow your dream. Do not be deterred by
naysayers. But also do not enter the arena unarmed.
Academia is a
vicious, hypercompetitive arena populated by intellectual gladiators with thin
skins and super-sized egos. Its operations are increasingly dictated by the
shallow values of the corporate world and its classrooms are increasingly
populated by consumers, not students.
Money is the
bottom line. Never lose sight of that reality. And never labor under the
misapprehension that your position there is secure. It almost never is.
Cherish
collegiality where it might be found because it is an endangered species. The
inevitable effect of corporatization is to pit workers against each other in a
race to the bottom line.
Don your
bullshit repellent raincoat to endure the torrents of self-serving PR designed
to maintain a superficial "brand" that will be thrust upon you and,
like the emperor’s new clothes, must never be questioned, at least not in
public. Put on your hip-waders to deal with all of the mind-numbing assessments
that will produce mounds of meaningless data that allows the ever increasing
army of technocrats to sleep well at night. And get ready to serve on search
committees that will reveal the real soul of your department with all its warts
and will grease the wheels of underpaid and perennially job-insecure teaching
staffs with the blood of ongoing human sacrifice of contingent labor.
In short,
prepare yourself to work like hell, to receive little reward for your labors - either monetary
or moral - and to be criticized, often unfairly, on
consumer surveys, faculty evaluations and by self-serving politicians.
Do not be
deluded by dreams of Plato’s Academy. *This* is what you are signing onto.
But there
will be rewards as well. You will meet some of the most interesting people
you've ever met both in the lectern and in the seats of your classroom. You
will learn some of the most interesting things you've ever known, particularly
if you do not fall into the trap of specialization which condemns you to a
confined life of defending a small patch of intellectual turf with a limited
shelf life while ignoring the rest of the world.
You will have
opportunities to travel and attend conferences where new ideas and new faces
are presented. Take them without hesitation and do not fall into the trap of
believing that your students or the bureaucratic duties thrust upon you cannot
live without your presence. They can. And you will need the time away if for
nothing else than to catch your breath.
Look at this
whole picture with open eyes. See it in all its potentials, both good and bad.
And if you still feel you are called to a life in academia, go for it. The
world still badly needs true scholars unencumbered by debts to outside
“sponsors.” And teaching remains a noble profession even as its beneficiaries –
which ultimately includes all of us - regularly fail to demonstrate gratitude
for the indispensable services teachers render.
Autumnal Advice
Of course, I
offer this advice in the late autumn of my career as an academic. The light is
beginning to appear at the end of the tunnel of my time in academia and I’m
increasingly hopeful it is not an oncoming train.
My guess is
that I would not have given such advice as little as five years ago. While I
would not necessarily see myself as an optimist, I have long been an idealist.
As such I’ve been willing to remain hopeful that the best potential of any of
the institutions in which I have served (educational, legal, religious) could
still be attained despite their inveterate inclinations to succumb to the
entropy of the lowest common denominator. All that is ever required is a clear
vision of where change needs to occur and the willingness of the human agents
of these institutions to engage the hard work of living into that potential.
But much has
changed in the past five years, not just in my own life but in academia at
large. Change always has the potential for living into the sage vision of our
Framers of “a more perfect union” even as we recognize that perfection itself
will inevitably elude even its most dedicated seekers. But while evolutionary
advances are one possibility in such changes, a degrading devolution is also
possible.
The trends
that are clearly dominant in academia today are alluded to above – decreasing
public support, increasing corporate values replacing the classical value of
the pursuit of knowledge and the devolution of students seeking such knowledge
into hordes of consumers seeking satisfaction of entitlements. The results are
fairly predictable: increasingly contentious relationships among peers, ever
growing class loads, ever increasing technocratic micromanagement and the
Niagara of managerial duties increasingly descending upon instructors under the
rubric of an open-ended job description. And that’s all before one even gets to
the wrestling over grades and course requirements with one’s customers.
Not
surprisingly, all of this most often and most directly impacts the contingent
labor providers least capable of defending their own interests. And in reality,
it is precisely the contingent labor force where most would-be academics are
headed these days. Would-be academics deserve to know this before they leave the Shire to take their Hero’s Journey.
Increasingly
these days, the Dragon wins.
Yet, we need
good teachers. And the world needs good scholarship without which we simply
cannot hope to contend with the plethora of serious problems facing the human
race today. As deeply as I feel my need to fully inform those who would enter
lives of public service of what they are getting into, I feel just as deeply
the need to encourage them to engage those sorely needed lives of service.
Venerable Voices
So what
advice can I give these young minds I have come to admire and love?
I think I
would begin with Thoreau who would say:
“Go
confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
But I would
quickly follow up that noble exhortation with the cautionary tale of this 1st
CE writer:
“Be of a
sober mind, ever vigilant. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls
around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your calling,
for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the
same kinds of suffering.” (I Peter 5:8,
adapted)
Both have
valuable advice. And my young would-be academics will need both the hermeneutic
of generosity and the hermeneutic of suspicion they provide if they are to
navigate the shoals of academia.
This is the
best I can offer you, young Jedis. Godspeed. Remember that I believe in you. And drop a line from time to
time to let me know how you are surviving.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Rev.
Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., M.Div., Ph.D.
Member,
Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest,
Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Asst.
Lecturer: Humanities, Religion, Philosophy of Law
Osceola
Campus, University of Central Florida, Kissimmee
If the
unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it
religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things
of value do not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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