Dorfman, Lorraine T. THE SUN STILL SHONE: PROFESSORS TALK ABOUT RETIREMENT

(Iowa City, Iowa: Iowa University Press) 1997 [hardbound] $21.95

 

 

 

It was the last part of  November, and I received a letter  marked “confidential” from the administration.

In the note, they asked “if I would like to retire?”  For a brief and shadowy  moment, I  felt like

I was in the middle of  nowhere. The earth moved under my feet.

 

Retire?

 

My academic  life has been pell mell. I  usually teach  15 hours a semester, and I have  tried to

do 5 to 10 articles, book reviews, and papers a year for the last thirty years.. Then in the summer of 96’ I had a heart attack  and quadruple by-pass surgery.

 

So, should  I retire?

 

Professor Lorraine T. Dorfman’s  THE SUN STILL SHONE: PROFESSORS TALK ABOUT RETIREMENT is an excellent account of what academics do when they move on from their profession into retirement.

 

The first portion of the text explains research protocols and the last provides the interview schedule

that was utilized. This is a down to earth account of   in- depth interviews  of  teachers  from 4 year post secondary schools of all types in the United States and England. It is heavy on descriptive narrative and insight  and  avoids mind numbing  number crunching.

 

My own experience talking to those that have gone before me is that the professor’s reactions and perceptions dramatically vary. One business professor I know, now in retirement, curses each new dawn. On the other hand,  an  accounting professor with his newly retired wife have gotten wanderlust and  have traveled all over the country in their motor home. Like the late Charles Karrault of CBS, they consciously avoid the interstates so that they can see  Americana, up close. Retirement is a joy.

 

Professor Dorfman’s book appears to be an affirmation of my own perceptions, but there is  so much

more.

 

Beginning in 1978, she has conducted  in depth interviews with academics from all areas of the

education enterprise of colleges and universities. Although there are numerous differences, she

finds some commonalties.

 

Academics would prefer to retire gradually,  and find solace in planning their retirement. Most do not move from their present residences. They continue to read and try to remain current

in their fields. They miss students,  and the professional status that they once had.

They covet library privileges and seek to continue in things that are creative. Those with the expertise

reassign their lives to voluntary organizations. Many establish offices in their home and do some consulting.

 

Further, they miss their office or lab on campus. Many enjoyed the strucuture of the work day and

work week.Some have the feeling of separation and neglect as if they miss the “ongoing” of life.

As she notes on page 185 “many people now live one, two, or three decades after  retirement.”

Thus, retirement is both easy to explain and yet a conundrum. Ultimately, a teacher can become

something else and whatever that is, it can last a long time and  can be bewildering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dorfman captures the emotions, angst, and exhilaration of moving on into retirement of this atypical population of professionals. Coincidentally, I have had an opportunity to be on the campuses of all the schools in the United States where she interviewed a purposive sample of over 400 retired and soon to be retired academics. Every campus is attractive and would provide the environmental milieu that would encourage one not to want to break  their professional ties completely.

 

 

For the 85,000 readers of THOUGHT & ACTION, this is the book to read. It is about real people in the real world of academia as  they face retirement with bittersweet ambivalence.

 

My own decision has been sharpened and improved by Dorfman’s book.  If and when my day comes,

Dorfman’s book has provided me with the intellectual knowledge of what  it is like in academic after life.

 

However, the emotional experience , as she acknowledges, is unique to each individual.

 

Joel Charles Snell

Professor

Social Sciences

Kirkwood Community College

Research Fellow

Arlington Institute

 

 

Joel Charles Snell is a professor  of sociology and criminology at Kirkwood Community College. He has

taught over 20 different courses in the social sciences and has roughly 300 publications and 10 monographs. He has been a consultant to numerous public and private enterprises and is listed in

all the WHO’S  WHO in the United States and England. He is a  Research Fellow with the Arlington

Institute, a Washinton DC “think tank” and a Fellow  with International Biographical Association

and the American Biographical Institute. He is on the editorial board of PSYCHOLOGY and a

reviewer for JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION. He has periodically been published

(editorials) in a number of  midwest newspapers, and has articles in THE FUTURIST and HARPER’S.

He was a warded “Outstanding Teacher” in 1993 at  Kirkwood College.

 

 

Joel Charles Snell/ Social Sciences/ Kirkwood Community College/ Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2068/

319-398-5532/319 398-4911/fax 319-398-1021 or 4908/ jsnell@kirkwood.cc.ia.us