Wildflower Seed in the Sand and Wind

My eyes-Help them to Look as well as to See

Name:
Location: The Triangle, North Carolina, United States

I try to keep an open heart & open mind.

Monday, November 05, 2007

(Research) Subject to Criticsm

Dear Research (Non)-Participant:

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me how stupid and dumb the research survey you were invited to participate in is. Despite that the survey is a valid and reliable scientific measurement instrument, it is regrettable that you interpreted it as such a huge waste of time. And knowing, dear potential participant, how precious your time is, I'm surprised and a little flattered that you even found the time and motivation to share your thoughts with me on the outside of your return envelope.

I assume that your motivation to do so was to express your displeasure with being invited to fill out a survey assessing, ironically I might add, your academic motivation. In addition, because the return envelope is anonymous, you felt protected enough to express your ideas in a such mean-spirited way. We should all be thankful to live in a society where one can tear down others down with no accountability for these actions. Also, I suppose you received some smug satisfaction knowing that a graduate student had to pay for the return postage on your non-response. And further, every postal employee was able to know your feelings regarding my research study as the envelope passed through their hands.

If this type of behavior makes your bitter and small life filled with sunshine and rainbows, then I will try not to take your attempts to deride my scholarly goals personally. However, I must clarify one of your criticisms because I fear you totally missed the mark. Your mocking of the survey on the back of the return envelope implies that you perceived the survey to ask if you feel dumb for going to college. If you had actually intrepreted the survey correctly, you would have noticed that that particular question was never asked. Now, there are some measures of amotivation on the survey, because frankly not everyone is as motivated as people like you. The way that surveys typically work is that you rank how certain statements correspond to your situation, therefore on the amotivation statement you could have responded that it did not correspond to you at all.

In closing, I will address the question you posed to me, since you were interested. No, I don't feel dumb for going to college. I am proud of my accomplishments and hard work, and I have to wonder if that makes you resentful. Sadly, you have left the impression that you are the one who is dumb, despite your protestations. And it's not because you didn't want to participate in my study, and it's not even because I had to pay return postage on your sad attempt to tear my study down and hurt my feelings. But rather, it's because you didn't seize an opportunity to help others learn more about why people go to college from someone who is an authority on the subject-you. If we knew more about adults academic motivation, then maybe we can help to make for successful experiences for others. But that would require generosity and selflessness and obviously those are qualities that you lack. Regardless of your criticisms, I wish you well with your academic goals.

Sincerely,
AmyD

P.S. You suck!

2 Comments:

Blogger Original Me said...

Seriously?? Someone did that? Don't listen to the nitwits!

12:20 PM  
Blogger amyd said...

I kid you not. I just have to vent about it, now I feel better : )

6:37 AM  

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