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[post_functional]

I was too distracted being appalled by how unforgiving of a single mistake academia can be to have noticed the date on the post.

[yellowtractor]

I was too distracted being appalled by how unforgiving of a single mistake academia can be to have noticed the date on the post.

Sorry--my post wasn't meant as a slap!  But I did want to draw attention to Tolerantly's two posts, which I would make mandatory reading for anyone considering such a step.

[kedves]

I do, though, want to add that having myself spent several years as an independent scholar, freelancer, and/or adjunct before returning to full-time tenure-track teaching, I think Tolerantly's two posts are the best on this aspect of the subject that we've seen in quite some time.

I wish there were some way to cross-list relevant posts in other forums, in this case "Leaving Academia."

I agree. I suggest that you start a "Helpful Advice" thread to collect helpful posts and threads (or something like that but better named) in that forum, with an original post that lays out the intended purpose of the thread, then ask the Moderators to pin it so it will stay stuck at the top where it can be added to. 

I don't mean to boss you by suggesting, but I think the thread will have more credibility and the original post will be better worded if done by you.

It would be nice if "Leaving Academe" were called something slightly different to allow for the way that some of us (okay, me) would like to remain in academia but supplement our income with other jobs.

[aandsdean]

I was too distracted being appalled by how unforgiving of a single mistake academia can be to have noticed the date on the post.

I'm certainly sensitive and sympathetic to farm_boy's situation, but quitting a tenured job, even if it's a "matter of principle" (and one man's principle is another man's insanity, it's important to remember), is not a "single mistake" of the kind implied by this rhetoric (which would cover things like an intemperate memo to the president, for example)....

[tolerantly]

Thank you, yellowtractor. I forgot to add that I have rich friends and am a girl. This is helpful in maintaining a middle-class life with things like meals at nice restaurants, beautiful hand-me-downs for me and the kid, offers of rides and free childcare when my car's not working, introductions, nice places to stay when I travel, etc.  This afternoon, for instance, the kid and I went to shabbos services at a doctor's house; the food was wonderful, the lox and nice-whiskey fairies had been, conversation was engaging, etc. Another person from the same community gave us a piano a couple of years ago. Last fall I bought what I hope will be my last car -- an 80s-vintage Volvo -- but I knew about it only because I happened to be in a university building, and got the price I did, I suspect, largely because I'm friendly with the professor who was selling it. If you have ego problems with this kind of thing, you can expect your standard of living -- and your children's standard of living, if you have kids -- to be much lower. And if you insist on doing it in a major city, you'll have other problems -- for one thing, you won't get in wherever your rich friends are going.

I suspect it's easier all around to do this marginal/middle-class-hanger-on thing as a woman. My male friends who are still at the writing thing at 40, 50, and have not found university berths tend to be very glum. No money often means no women, and it doesn't get better with age.

[post_functional]

I was too distracted being appalled by how unforgiving of a single mistake academia can be to have noticed the date on the post.

I'm certainly sensitive and sympathetic to farm_boy's situation, but quitting a tenured job, even if it's a "matter of principle" (and one man's principle is another man's insanity, it's important to remember), is not a "single mistake" of the kind implied by this rhetoric (which would cover things like an intemperate memo to the president, for example)....

I suppose I'm not enough of a relativist to agree that one man's principle is another man's insanity.  I for one respect people acting on their principles, even if I despise the principle or believe the acting upon it to be itself misguided.  In some sort of position of hiring power I'd be inclined to cut farm_boy, hypothetically, more slack than if he just irresponsibly blew off a tenure-track job to spend a year in Barbados with a hot lover.  I'm also not sure how this could be termed anything other than a "single mistake" if we concede that it was a mistake and that he only did it once.

Equating the leaving of a job with something as serious as an implied threat to the president only reinforces my underlying point: the self-importance of academia is appalling.

[aandsdean]

I was too distracted being appalled by how unforgiving of a single mistake academia can be to have noticed the date on the post.

I'm certainly sensitive and sympathetic to farm_boy's situation, but quitting a tenured job, even if it's a "matter of principle" (and one man's principle is another man's insanity, it's important to remember), is not a "single mistake" of the kind implied by this rhetoric (which would cover things like an intemperate memo to the president, for example)....

You missed my point: I was not talking about an implied threat to the president, I was talking about an "intemperate memo," which is something like saying "Your plan to tear down Old Brick to put up a parking lot is by far the stupidest of many idiotic initiatives I've seen from your office."

You're right that quitting "on principle" is better than blowing off a job to spend a year in Barbados with a hot lover (I have a former colleague from grad school who did just such a thing, and it was a topic of much risibility among our fellow former grad students).  However, it's still quitting a job that everyone knows in this economy (and really for the last 20 or 30 years, depending on your discipline) is like gold even if it's crap.  Sure it's a single mistake, but both getting speeding ticket and accidentally shooting the family dog while cleaning your gun are both single mistakes as well.

I suppose I'm not enough of a relativist to agree that one man's principle is another man's insanity.  I for one respect people acting on their principles, even if I despise the principle or believe the acting upon it to be itself misguided.  In some sort of position of hiring power I'd be inclined to cut farm_boy, hypothetically, more slack than if he just irresponsibly blew off a tenure-track job to spend a year in Barbados with a hot lover.  I'm also not sure how this could be termed anything other than a "single mistake" if we concede that it was a mistake and that he only did it once.

Equating the leaving of a job with something as serious as an implied threat to the president only reinforces my underlying point: the self-importance of academia is appalling.

[farm_boy]

hmmmm..... a year in Barbados with a hot lover....

Well, I'll add that one to my list of regrets.

My "mistake" was premeditated.  I thought about it every day for a year and-a-half before doing it.  My mother always said "If you burn your butt you sit on your own blister."

The blister is healing.  I'm not sure if I regret my decision to quit my tenured position, because it was an ethical decision, one from the heart.  As far as being an effective form of protest, though, I have my doubts.

I can't really blame "academia" for not giving me another chance for a tenured position.  There is a huge oversupply in my field, I'm not that brilliant, and, let's face it, I'm a troublemaker.

[mad_doctor]

Pull up a chair and have a bouron with me, farm_boy.  I've never quit a tenured position on principle, but I quit a "sure thing" on principle - the next best thing.  No point being tenured at a place that would require you sacrifice your soul.  Here's a toast to us troublemakers!