Of course, I need not tell you that professors are human, too. What I want to draw attention to, however, is one aspect of that humanity, namely the tendency to become bitter. What might occasion bitterness on a professor’s part? The answer is quite simple: The failure to achieve the academic heights dreamed about in graduate school. Anyone professor who attended a high-powered graduate program dreamed of one day becoming one of the major trend-setters in her or his field: the subject of untold dissertations, journal articles, and even the chapters of books.
The academic world is an exceedingly competitive one, however; and most graduate students—even from high-powered graduate program—never go on to become one of the trend-setters in their field—a superstar in the field, as we say. And it is this reality that is very fertile soil for the growth of bitterness on the part of professors.
Rather than accepting the fact that she or he will not become a major trend-setter in her or his field, the professor aches over the fact and starts blaming one thing or person and then another. Worse, the professor may even fail to acknowledge that things are nonetheless going rather well in her or his career, although she or he is not a trend-setter. After all, the choice is not to be a superstar or nothing at all. (more…)