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Rating:  Summary: Operant conditioning for groupthink. Review: I found this work fascinating, though my take is different. Observing the Darwin debate over time as a secular critic I was always struck by the way the Intelligent Design movement (which I don't agree with)was able to simply skewer the standard scientific position, even despite their own confusions, as all the bigwigs in science and education were reduced to reiterated press release stuff from the kneejerk Darwin paradigm. How was it possible, I thought, that the entire cadre of scientific experts could not properly defend their own subject or see the clear problems pointed to? The answer became clear in interactions with some grad students, nervously retreating in genuine fear, knowing full well they had to bite the bullet and lie. Baffled, since I know little about the academic context, I found this book hit the spot very well in showing how that could be possible. Very interesting book, although I think some of the examples the author gives don't quite match his very well laid out thesis at the beginning. That's not surprising, his thesis is very intangible, and it is sometimes hard to put one's finger on the actual way it happens.
Rating:  Summary: A must read for all students Review: It took me three days to read this book. I could not put it down...I took it with me everywhere and have told everyone I know about it. The level of insight into the motivations of professional training schools is right on the mark. I am currently a graduate student as well as an employee at a major university. I can see first hand the professionalization (read indoctrination) of the graduate student. I can also see with more insight the dynamics that go on in an academic office. I now understand why those in charge of forwarding the ideology of the office are not micromanaged, and those not trusted to forward the accurate ideology are micromanaged. Dr. Schmidt also does an excellent job in describing the role industry and the military has in professional training programs. A professional schools is seen as an extention of the profession, not an extention of the educational institution in which it is housed. There are tremendous forces pushing and pulling on professional training programs to produce the "right" kind of student. Unfortunately the force that wins out is the one with the money...private industry and the military. Students have to be aware that their very futures can be determined by what kind of funding a department receives. He is right to say that if one does not remain connected to one's values and convictions, one can succumb to the whims of those in power. After depressing you with his accurate interpretation of the role professional schools play in society, he gives instructions on how to fight the indoctrination process. I'm buying extra copies and giving them away as graduation gifts. A MUST READ for anyone who wants to survive professional school with their conscience intact.
Rating:  Summary: Preaching to the disaffected Review: Jeff Schmidt's thesis is that professionals are needed by business and are formed by education. Those who don't fit in are discarded, not necessarily because they aren't smart enough, but because they're not conservative enough. Liberal, independent thinkers are weeded out. Professionals have to be political, and since the rules are made by the bosses, they aren't in control and hence lead generally miserable lives. The process of making professionals is an "intellectual bootcamp" with "cold-blooded expulsions and creeping indoctrination" that "systematically grinds down the student's spirit" and ultimately produces "employees who do their assigned work without questioning its goals." Only the stuffy and conservative professionals can accommodate, as poorly as they do, to the hierarchical structure of the business-military complex. Schmidt got a PhD in physics at UC Irvine, and he draws examples and conclusions from the weeding out experience there; in particular, the qualifying exam. This is an "ordeal" that requires much preparation. Schmidt says that students who do not submit to the requirement to memorize solutions from previous exams do poorly, even if they have a good general background. This is because trick questions and time pressure only allow students to regurgitate obscure things they remember. Also, faculty will sometimes pass a student who fails the test if that student is playing the game, demonstrating compliance by submitting to demands of the faculty, and working hard on a research project. Schmidt's underlying complaint is that students are selected to "fill a slot in the corporate-governmental complex -- so well suited to serve the status quo in an institution of the status quo", not "to work for social change." Unfortunately, Schmidt's examples and his general position are so extreme that most people who have gone through graduate school in technical fields of science or engineering will simply respond "That's not my experience, nor is it the experience of anyone I knew in the PhD program." Contrary to Schmidt's examples of selfish, preening, secretive, ego-obscessed professors, most faculty members in physics departments are generous, open, inquisitive people, who are deeply interested in their science and care about their students. Ultimately, the book becomes boring in its repetition of the theme. As social science, it relies on a small selection of anecdotes and fails the test of credibility.
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