I think it would be appropriate for me to comment on my previous post about the poorly written dissertation. I gave the impression to some that I did not esteem a particular school, and I want to state that that is not the case. My point would have been the same if I did not name the school, and in hindsight, I should not have included its name. The reason I did is that I admire the school, and was thus surprised by this paper. But by not making my admiration clear, my post communicated the opposite.
Southern is one of the leading evangelical seminaries in the U.S. today. I think all would agree on that. No one would have been surprised if the dissertation had been written at the Seminary of the Wacko Theological Nuts. I have several friends who are former and current PhD students at Southern, and I have the highest respect for each of them. One of them wrote a dissertation that I cannot understand, but that is owing to his brilliance and my ignorance. Furthermore, I think it is fair to say that he became this knowledgeable because of his PhD education at Southern. (He was smart when I knew him in college, but he’s a different machine now.) On the other hand, I have seen poor papers in other seminaries. I recall that in college I typed a paper (that was a job in those days) for a graduating senior, and I thought that they really should not allow a guy who writes this poorly to graduate. So this issue is one that crosses schools, degree programs, and geography. And thus it would have been better for me to omit the name of the institution.
It might be appropriate to note here too what may not always be recognized by my readers. I consider this blog to be a personal and private blog, written for my friends and former students. I do not have any interest in others reading this blog, though if they find it and do so, I can’t stop them. I have a public blog and several websites, but there are no links to this blog from any of them. The search engines do not index this blog (because of settings I have made). The intention is to be invisible to the world. Others find me, and in hindsight, I should have chosen a more obscure domain name (like s8r5e9w2vw9u234nw9dk.com), but that doesn’t change my purpose here. I realize that anything on the web can be found, and so there are things I don’t include here (including personal details about our family; that’s why we have a family update email). But things I discuss here are intended to be “in house,” and among friends. Sometimes someone I don’t know will comment, and it may sound like it doesn’t belong. That I attribute to the fact that they don’t know me and assume I’m speaking to a different audience than I am. All of this is perhaps helpful to communicate, and it would tie back to the Southern issue in this way: my post was not intended as a public flogging of the school but rather a comment to friends about a particular aspect of today’s educational system. A seminary faculty doesn’t need me to tell them how to grade papers, and completed dissertations are publicly available on the internet. I intended it as an entertaining private comment on a public matter.
I thought about simply editing the previous post to delete the school’s name, but since many have already read it, and the comments would be difficult (or impossible) to appropriately edit, I chose to address it here.
Thanks Todd for your public display of humility. Unfortunately, that quality is lacking in too much of the Christian blogosphere. Your blogs and websites are extremely helpful and I often point people to some of your posts. Thanks again.
Here’s what I like about you Todd…whatever comes out of your mouth (or hands), you’re ready and willing to discuss. In my opinion, you, unlike millions of other people, SHOULD have a blog. There are too many people ‘spewing’ (?) usually valueless words and then clicking ‘publish’ with no regard beyond. I SO appreciate that you care about what you say, you care about how it’s received, and you care about engaging people in their thoughts too.
You’re a cool cat, Todd. I think you use your blog (personal or otherwise) with great wisdom and purpose.
And, in closing, I can tell you from the jr high and high school educator level, what you’re experiencing at the grad level is the first fruits of the decline of the American education system. I have seniors in high school who still don’t have ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ down. Your observation about what grad students are turning in was curious and confirming (and disheartening), but totally not surprising.
amen
Todd,
I think it is entirely appropriate to comment on the dismal condition of American Christian academics. At the school I recently graduated from, that kind of sloppy work would not be acceptable for Bachelor’s work, let alone a doctoral program.
Hopefully, any embarassment on the part of the mentioned school will spur more careful oversight and perhaps higher standards for academic work.
Here ‘s what I like about you Sam…you’re always so encouraging!
Todd, where do you find completed dissertations on the Internet? You mentioned that they are publicly available.
My statement needs clarifying. The dissertations are publicly available, but not necessarily downloadable via the internet. If you’re at a school with a database subscription, you can download pdfs of dissertations from your own school for free. Anyone can purchase a dissertation, and some of these are free depending upon the author’s choice (http://www.proquest.com/products_umi/dissertations/; see also http://tinyurl.com/5huyd4). And you can request a dissertation via Inter-Library Loan. I must confess though that I don’t have any experience doing these things; sleep comes easily enough!
Thanks, Todd. As I was researching this myself, I assumed this is what you were going to say. I was hoping though, you had some type of inside track on where to go to download past dissertations that may have been made public free of charge. Thanks again.
And, thank you for your posts. Even though I’m not a friend of the family, I’ve really appreciated your insights and wisdom. Your blog is one I read quite frequently.