Enthusiastic and sardonic, Exacting, warm, and too soon past, Your classes, once my daily tonic, Have borne eccentric fruit at last. Having recently completed a doctorate in the social sciences, I have seen many people struggle with the PhD glut. I believe doctoral programs, no matter how prestigious, need to think more creatively about career options. It is time to reconsider the goals and roles of graduate education. The non-news that sufficient employment at colleges does not exist for humanities PhDs is very sad for the candidates and those recently degreed.
Deconstruction occurs in life as well as in literature.
In the better school districts, teachers with doctorates are paid more generously than assistant and associate professors. We need teachers with subject-matter mastery in our schools, as opposed to generalists with education degrees. The nationwide PhD glut has coincided with a push to corporatize higher education. Trustees and legislators across the country spent much of the 1980s and '90s calling for budget cuts and more teaching. University administrators often responded to budget pressures by encouraging tenured faculty to retire and then hiring part-time faculty.