(9:58 PM) | Adam Kotsko:

Graduate School: Worst Idea Ever?

[UPDATE: A Gauche has published the post mentioned below. It is a good post.]

This essay by Michael Berube is disturbing (and a little longish). I know that the author of The Weblog's sister site has promised an essay about the trials and tribulations of graduate students, but let me say this: I don't think that graduate students should be teaching the bulk of courses, anywhere. Teaching is the professional activity of a professor, and graduate training should be just that -- training, not actively engaging in the profession. I think there's a case to be made for ABD students teaching courses here and there, but I don't think it makes much sense when the norm, the assumption is that graduate students will be teaching half-time or more during their formative years as scholars.

If graduate students didn't teach, then all but those who were accepted at the very wealthiest institutions would probably go into catastrophic debt -- but then their job prospects would probably look a lot better, too. No one suggests that medical students should be practicing medicine part-time from the very beginning of their medical training; neither does anyone suggest that lawyers should be practicing law throughout law school. Elementary and secondary teaching are professions where slightly different practices prevail, but even there, the "student teaching" period is clearly demarcated, comes late in the program, and is under the strict supervision of an experienced teacher. In all cases, the profession itself, or even preparatory "practice" exercises in the profession, is not practiced until a period of intense training has occurred. By having graduate students teach courses, professors are basically sending the message that a PhD is not required for those who wish to educate undergraduates. A poorly paid "lover of knowledge" with minimal prep time and limited knowledge of the subject matter of the course can do the job so well that a full, tenured professor feels comfortable leaving all the work of that course to the graduate students. When combined with the frequently aired opinion that people who are real experts in their field know too much to be effective educators ("Ignorance is strength!"), the "grad student issue" could well undo higher education as a profession.

I can see living the life of a pauper for nearly a decade in pursuit of the credentials necessary to practice a prestigious profession. I can totally see loading myself down with debt in order to be able to devote myself to thoroughly learning a complex and broad body of knowledge on which I will draw for the rest of my professional life. I completely understand that a period of apprenticeship or probation is necessary and proper in any professional field. The contemporary grad school regime, however, does not seem to be what I just described. It makes no sense to live like a pauper while actually doing the work that will be required of me after my "education" is complete -- especially when there's less than a 50% chance that I'll get to make a genuinely livable career out of the arrangement.

My instincts for most of the time I have been interested in academia have been those that are probably shared by many with similar inclinations: "Yes, the current regime is exploitative and insane, but participating in it is the only way achieve mastery of an academic field and make a career of the life of the mind." I'm not so sure about that anymore. As things stand, it seems like graduate students (especially in English) have no advantage over other lovers of knowledge, aside from deadlines. If you want a formative period in which to pursue the life of the mind in your youth, then find a decent-paying part-time job, enough to let you pay the rent and get by, and read your stupid books. If you really want to teach now and then, go get a masters degree -- I'm sure there's some occasional adjunt work to be had by diligent holders of MAs. If you need a group setting to motivate you, then start your own backyard philosophy club. If you want to write and be published, I'm sure there is plenty of freelance work to be had -- also, I've read the occasional article in a scholarly journal written by a non-professor.

A few concluding remarks:

• First, the English/Literature departments, most famous for being completely jam-packed with leftists, are also most famous for their exploitative labor practices.
  
• Second, if I decide to go to grad school anyway (beyond CTS), I am definitely going to delete this post. I am also going to have to look seriously at whether the conditions in theology departments are notably better. I doubt it.
  
• Third, I'm not sure the situation is hopeless. Professors could wise up. Graduate programs could be curtailed -- in fact, I'm sure that most of them would have to be shut down entirely, with a few "great" schools training the majority of those who will train undergraduates. Tenured or tenure-track PhD holders could maintain a monopoly on undergraduate education, thus ensuring the long-term viability of academia as a profession. I think that would result in better-trained professors, higher-quality undergraduate education, and better, more accessible scholarly work -- with more (college-educated) people reading and enjoying it. The liberal arts would flourish. Colleges would be dedicated to cultivating minds rather than training future job candidates. Armed with a well-educated populus, our nation would reverse its short-sighted foreign and domestic policies based on enabling ever-greated capitalist exploitation and become a genuine beacon of hope, unequivocally loved throughout the world. People of all nations would rise up, the lion would lie down with the lamb, swords would be beaten into plowshares, gasoline would be converted to petroleum jelly, plans for nuclear bombs would be recycled into the pages of an elegant edition of the letters of John Keats -- then some jackass would eat the apple and mess it up for everyone.
  
• Fourth, I'd like to thank Mike Hancock for his delightful guest post (below).

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

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