Recently, I was working with a doctoral student to help her create a challenging but meaningful thesis statement for her dissertation. We worked for several hours writing and rewriting the thesis statement to address the happy path of her arguments, while simultaneously providing a countervailing position to create a well-formed thesis statement.
After many hours and iterations of the thesis statement, the student decided she was no longer interested in pursuing the work in her dissertation. We expended many hours researching the topic, thinking about the various hypotheses, and we reviewed sources pro and con on the topic to try and arrive at a meaningful thesis statement.
I learned quite a bit about working with undecided students; however, I also discovered that unless someone is committed to their own work or craft, trying to help that person succeed is like “carrying water in a paper sack”.(C). The early signs clearly indicated the student was not committed to the subject she had chosen and she was simply going through the motions of an academic, while I was committed to her successful completion of her dissertation. The entire exercise turned out to be futile.
I realized that it is not the best use of my time or resources to engage in any work that might require sustained mental, emotional, monetary, and/or time investments knowing that the commitments might not eventually bear fruit. I believe we must choose meaningful work, hold others accountable for their own success or failures, and we must not allow others to fail upwards while dragging us along. To do so would be like “carrying water in a paper sack”.
S. Brooks PhD
Carrying Water In A Paper Sack © 2024 by Stanton M. Brooks is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
