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F O R U M O N P H Y S I C S & S O C I E
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Volume 31,
Number 3
REVIEWS Disciplined
Minds by Jeff Schmidt (Rowman and Littlefield,
ISBN: 0-8476-9364-3, $26.95, hardcover) The title, like the book,
represents the double-edged sword of professional training. Does one’s mind become more disciplined in
graduate school -- more focused, more devoted to one’s subfield? Or is the mind of a graduate student
disciplined into obeying the structure and hierarchy unique to one’s field of
study? In his book, author Jeff
Schmidt explores the development of a professional and highlights those
factors which he believes perpetuate the insular nature of the professional
world. The book begins with the
development and behavior of a professional.
Schmidt argues that a basic distinction must be made between a
professional and a non-professional: the use of political skills (p.
41). A professional, by his
definition, is a person that an institution entrusts to maintain the ideologies
of that institution. They have been
trained to perpetuate the image of the institution. This kind of
professionalism comes at a price. In
order to perpetuate the institution’s ideologies, the human mind has two
options: to genuinely believe in those ideologies -- on the clock and off, or
only to believe in them when the clock is ticking. Most people do not enter an institution in full agreement with
every aspect of that institution’s ideologies, so there is some break-in
period for novitiates. Schmidt talks
about this in the context of graduate school as a “boot camp,” where ideals
are homogenized into the broth of the institutional soup. That is, there is an
inherent sacrifice of one’s own role in the creative progress of the
professional field while one is a drone.
The example that he describes in much detail is the plight of the
graduate student, who must sacrifice time, energy and income for the sake of
the doctoral degree. Schmidt believes
that the sacrificial nature of graduate school is necessary in order to
prepare the student for the transition into a hierarchical system. Drawing upon his personal
experience as a physics graduate student at University of California-Irvine
and stories of other students, Jeff Schmidt’s book is an exploration into the
developmental stages of a young professional. It is, at times, hard to read his book without sensing his
bitterness towards his graduate school days leaking through. Perhaps it is necessary for us to be
exposed to this bitterness in order to understand the effects that such
clashes with bureaucracy can have on an individual. D. Elizabeth Pugel University of Illinois pugel@uiuc.edu Physics and Society is the quarterly of the Forum on Physics and Society, a division of the American Physical Society. It presents letters, commentary, book reviews and reviewed articles on the relations of physics and the physics community to government and society. It also carries news of the Forum and provides a medium for Forum members to exchange ideas. Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum. Contributed articles (up to 2500 words, technicalities are encouraged), letters (500 words), commentary (1000 words), reviews (1000 words) and brief news articles are welcom. Send them to the relevant editor by e-mail (preferred) or regular mail. Editor: Al Saperstein, asaperstein@fas.org. Articles Editor: Betsy Pugel, pugel@uiuc.edu. Reviews Editor: Art Hobson, ahobson@comp.uark.edu. Electronic Media Editor: Andrew Post-Zwicker, azwicker@pppl.gov. Web Manager for APS: Joanne Fincham. |
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