Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Hypocrisy!":
I cannot believe the negativity this post generated! Poor salmon ella! You're just trying to juggle being a mom and a scientist and making sure you have time to be fully present and do a good job in whatever role you're in. It is very hard and very complex, and you have every right to be frustrated with someone who wants to use her child (it sounds like) to make you bend to her schedule. You also are not a hypocrite for wanting to make sure that your advisor is actually around for you.
My advisor has not been there for me, and I've adjusted to that pretty well because I am comfortable working on my current project alone. But sometimes I do wish that I had someone who was more attentive. And there is nothing wrong with wanting that--after all, you are a STUDENT of this person.
Guidance is not hand-holding. I agree that there has to be a balance of independence and guidance, but as an instructor myself, if I were as lazy about my students as most of the faculty I know, I don't think I'd want to be in the academy at all. Sometimes I just don't think PhD students matter very much to full-time faculty, when we are the ones who are supporting their own research by the tuition we pay and the low-level classes we teach. I have resented paying tuition every semester since I started my dissertation, because, as far as I can see, I am teaching MYSELF how to do this. At least at the end, I will have the degree, which is worth something, but I think the mentoring system at most American Universities is woefully inadequate all around, and comments such as Ms. Phd's just make me want to spit nails!!!! Are you that far removed from your PhD experience that you cannot remember what it was like in this stage????
What academia needs is more people like ella here, people who are willing to question the establishment, the tradition, and themselves. Those are the people I respect in academia, the people who do work every bit as hard as the rest of the university (and often harder), but who are willing to stop and think critically about the process.
Besides, I thought this blog was devoted to deconstructing academia, not upholding the accepted status quo . . .
Posted by Anonymous to academicsecret at 6/22/2007 3:35 AM
