Posts Tagged ‘Sisyphus’
Why Pursue a Higher Degree? Trying to Explain My Doctoral Journey…
It really distresses me when experienced entrepreneurs discount the abilities of people with degrees or the value of pursuing a degree. It also bothers me when I hear people refer to professors and academia in general in derogatory terms or call life outside academia “the real world.” I don’t understand these attitudes, unless it’s that people don’t understand the efforts that go into academic pursuits.
Each level of academia (AA/AS, BA/BS, MA/MS, Ph.D/Practical Doctorate) exposes the students to different ideas, levels of thinking, and an array of different personalities. The higher the level of academia, the more reading that is required. Not just reading on one particular topic, but on a great number of subjects that help take your current thinking and turn it on its head. Then, once the reading is done, the students and professors come together to discuss the topics involved and that turns your thinking in a whole new direction.
I leave each class at the end of eight tumultuous weeks a better person than I entered the class. I have a whole new perspective of the class topic, the organization I work for, current events, and have a better idea of how I want to conduct my research for my dissertation project. The whole idea behind getting a higher degree is to help make the world a better place and solving problems that affect life, business, and society.
Writing a dissertation is a Sisyphean Task.
My parents, brother, sister, aunt and uncle, another uncle, and several friends are all entrepreneurs. None of them have any degrees higher than an associate’s degree. I have great respect for what they do and the knowledge they have accumulated through their experiences. However, each of them has expressed gratitude for my expertise and academic experience. That doesn’t make me better than they are. Nor does it make them better than me. We just have different experiences, knowledge, and expertise.
If you know someone that is working to pursue a higher academic degree, please be supportive of their efforts even if you don’t understand what they or doing or why. The higher the degree, the higher the level of commitment. The higher the degree, the deeper the level of thinking, understanding, and work is being put into solving a problem. It doesn’t matter what the problem is. Someone has taken it on because it matters to them. Don’t belittle their efforts or the hoops they have to jump through or the time it takes them to finish. Be supportive of someone pursuing a degree just like you would be of someone starting a new business. Both types of efforts are important. Just in different ways.
Comments from other sources
Twitter:
- @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford I hate having2explain either of my degrees. I have an mm/hrm &a BM in vocal performance. They hardly go together. & TBC.
- @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford Trying2explain why I chose one or the other&convincing an employer that a music degree is just as demanding as an academic 1
- @amy0223: @Catherine_Ford Not sure if I’ll ever get2use my masters which is irritating but I achieved my goal of getting my degree.Most don’t get it.
