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Andrew M. Ball, MS, PT -> Re: PEDS-PT Discussion list (July 25, 2000 2:31:00 PM)
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SJ,
No, I’m not going anywhere. This is more of announcement that I’m going to retire the “shock jock” character that I used to play, and ya’ll are going to get a chance to get to know the real me. I love hanging out on RehabEdge. I was just letting people know that I offered to Toby Long and Ann Van Sant that if they wanted to take over moderation of the pediatrics forum, or would like to share that responsibility . . . well, they have longer and stronger national reputations than I, and are APTA officers. I'd therefore be willing to share moderation with either of them.
My tone however MUST, and is going to change. I'm on the road to completion of my PhD, and I'd like to teach at the university level someday (By the way, I didn't get the faculty position that I applied for, so if anyone is interested in interviewing someone interested in teaching pediatrics and taking the responsibility for curriculum design and innovation . . . drop me a line). Anyway, pissing on, and pissing off the entire academic and clinical community is not likely the best way to achieve that goal. Being a physical therapy "shock jock" over the course of the past year has been fun, but I don't want to be the PT community's equivalent of Howard Stern . . . I think I have more to offer the profession than that and don’t want to get that kind of reputation this early in my career. Besides, there are more than a few anonymous members who stir up enough mud to keep things interesting.
When I took the role as moderator, I had done so with the single goal of trying to get people who had not read anything since graduation, to read articles and research with a vengeance (usually to counterattack me), and eventually with a passion for the profession. For many RehabEdge members, that has occurred. And it's been wonderful, and I'm very, very proud of having been an agent of change in that area.
The stature of RehabEdge discussions have been catapulted very quickly, to a national level. This has created more "celebrity" than I had anticipated or wanted. As a result, I have to watch my mouth a little bit. Not so much because I'm angering people, because most leaders at the APTA understood my hidden agenda . . . but because for some PT's, it just gave them a reason not to read, and then to quote my extremist positions as their opinion.
I'm flattered, but that was NEVER, EVER, my intent. The discussion about the Clinical Research Agenda is a good example. I went off just to try to get people to take a look at it, offer suggestions for improvement, and then figure out how clinicians and researchers could create mutually beneficial relationships that would eventually benefit the entire profession. In truth, I have a very few problems with the agenda, but I wanted for people to read it. For some RehabEdge members that worked, for others it did not. In that particular discussion, we never made it to that kind of intellectual discussion, so by my standards, that one failed.
Until recently, I had not considered ALL of the costs.
Drew
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