17 July 2001

Professional School

[Croly's Promise of American Life] represents nothing less than the Progressive attempt -- seen throughout Progressive writings -- to decouple the Constitution from the Declaration. This paves the way, intellectually, for a much easier approach to the real target, the Constitution. Effectively stripped of its de facto preamble, the Constitution is much more easily attacked by Progressives such as Croly as simply a legal-formalistic document that was a product of its times, rendered archaic by changed economic and social conditions, and no longer serving American democracy.

-- A passage I really like from the dissertation

I'm reminded tonight as I bang out some thoughts on Woodrow Wilson's Constitutional Government in the United States for Chapter Three of the dissertation of recent conversation on the topic of professional "schools" (non-technical ones like law, social science, humanities, etc) and their purpose. A wise professor told me before I headed off to graduate school in political science that I should always remember that graduate school is about professional socialization -- learning how the discipline speaks, writes, and acts, and absorbing the canon of the discipline -- and NOT about bringing any sort of creativity to the discipline (that comes AFTER the Ph.D., perhaps). Grad school is all about preparing for comprehensive exams (which are all about tying the writings of various gods of the discipline to specific questions) and completing a major research project. To the extent one can mold the experience in order to learn something interesting, that is admirable -- but manifestly NOT what the majority of one's professors are interested in. It sounds cynical, but it is wonderful advice for anyone pursuing professional school (and advice that people who tend not to pass comprehensive exams have not heeded).

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On a very happy note, I received the insurance check today and was able to pick up my repaired truck. Now I can stop mooching off of people for rides here and there. After not having driven for a while, and riding mainly in low-riding cars, I was a little surprised by the perspective of driving the truck.

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I've completed roughly 4 pages of very dense dissertation writing on Wilson's historicist political theory and his providing the underpinnings for Progressive legal theorists (and Charles Beard indirectly, for that matter). A public service announcement courtesy of Andrew's theory of self-motivation via internet proclamation! More self-motivation -- when I do complete the beast, I'm planning on backpacking the whole of the Ouachita National Trail (200+ miles) straight through, probably a 3-4 week endeavor accounting for weather.

[Posted @ 10:21 PM CST]