As I write this (26 Oct), just yesterday our son Andrew completed and submitted his dissertation in anthropology. This marks the high-point of about 7 years of intense study. Andrew never thought he would see this day, and many other people likely had doubts.
As parents, we understand that each person makes their own way in this world. Some wonderful parents have wayward children. Some not so great parents have terrific children. Each person, given their individual talents and limitations chooses, within limitations, their path.
Having written a dissertation myself, and directed 52 others, I know a bit about it. I devised a method to make it relatively easy for my students. In my system, grad students got involved in research early in their studies and increased their depth every semester. I used to tell them, "my intention for you is that your three dissertation studies be your 5th, 6th, and 7th publications. In other words, I wanted this "independent" research experience to be routine, not exceptional. In fact, I consider my greatest contribution to graduate education to be my individual institution of a "3-study dissertation" formatted as three connected studies written up for publication with each containing its own Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. This worked extremely well for those Ph.D. students who had already done this 3-4 times before starting their dissertation.
Andrew did NOT have this situation, so his dissertation was extremely, and unnecessarily, stressful.
But now, huzzah, it is completed. He still has to defend it, but for Andrew that should be pretty easy, since he does understand what he did, how he did it and why.
I used to encourage my students to GO to graduation, which I never did after my BS graduation. There aren't that many truly happy, happy occurrences and graduation is one. So, make the most of it.
So soon I will be booking our flights to Tempe to see Andrew be hooded.
Another cause for Jubilation.
As parents, we understand that each person makes their own way in this world. Some wonderful parents have wayward children. Some not so great parents have terrific children. Each person, given their individual talents and limitations chooses, within limitations, their path.
Having written a dissertation myself, and directed 52 others, I know a bit about it. I devised a method to make it relatively easy for my students. In my system, grad students got involved in research early in their studies and increased their depth every semester. I used to tell them, "my intention for you is that your three dissertation studies be your 5th, 6th, and 7th publications. In other words, I wanted this "independent" research experience to be routine, not exceptional. In fact, I consider my greatest contribution to graduate education to be my individual institution of a "3-study dissertation" formatted as three connected studies written up for publication with each containing its own Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. This worked extremely well for those Ph.D. students who had already done this 3-4 times before starting their dissertation.
Andrew did NOT have this situation, so his dissertation was extremely, and unnecessarily, stressful.
But now, huzzah, it is completed. He still has to defend it, but for Andrew that should be pretty easy, since he does understand what he did, how he did it and why.
I used to encourage my students to GO to graduation, which I never did after my BS graduation. There aren't that many truly happy, happy occurrences and graduation is one. So, make the most of it.
So soon I will be booking our flights to Tempe to see Andrew be hooded.
Another cause for Jubilation.
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