The life/love of the mind

Over at the Chronicle there is an interesting follow-up essay by Thomas Benton about why professors should be discouraging graduate students from entering the profession. Some of his arguments makes sense, especially this one:

Some reasonably conscientious advisers tell students that they should go to graduate school only if they "could not consider doing anything else," but the students haven't tried anything else — and neither have most of the professors. Given professors' lack of information, students' naïve trust, and the overall ambiguity of the future, the easiest thing to do is fall back on our faith in doing what you "love."

I heard that advice myself when I was considering graduate school. But Benton's point that the advice only is effective if students know what they DON'T want to do is a corollary that I think should be tacked on more often.

Part of the reason I even went back to school as an undergrad was because I'd had other jobs, and didn't like any of them. It wasn't that I was just stuck in service either - I'd worked as a photographer, a glass installer, a daycare worker and even in management. Didn't like any of them. So I went back to school. Since then, I've held jobs that I could've made a career at - non-profit management, human resources, even the elearning gig I have right now.

But none of them satisfy me like the research and teaching (even if teaching nothing but composition is getting a little tiring). So, I can't say I can't imagine myself doing anything else, because I have. But I can say I can't imagine myself being as satisfied doing anything else.*

When you put it that way, I feel inspired and invigorated about my work, and I'm eager to find a full-time job in a career that satisfies me so fully! Will this mean that I will be incredibly disappointed if I don't get one? Sure. But I know I can do those other kinds of jobs - it's not like I'd starve if I couldn't be a professor. But I know which career is going make me happy because I know which ones won't. I think that's a nice thing to keep in mind for this coming year.

*this is not to say that I think everyone who wants to become a professor needs to go slog it out in the trenches first in order to be fully prepared. I think some people are better than I at knowing exactly what they want without putting themselves through the pain of horrible jobs that I did. I'm just a little dense, and needed that pain to figure it out!