Process Over Product

I have a daughter who will graduate with an MA in English next month. Her thesis topic is the pedagogy of writing instruction.   This morning I marked up her manuscript in my parental role as a free editorial service (your basic punctuation, grammar and syntax nag). About half way through the manuscript I encountered a sentence about "...the pedagogical innovations of the process revolution in writing instruction, the decentering or sharing of authority, the recognition of students as sources of knowledge, a focus on writing processes over writing products..." I paused with a sense of deja vu and thought about "the process revolution in clinical care, the decentering or sharing of health care authority, the recognition of patients as sources of knowledge, and a focus on episodes of care over quantities of procedures." It's an inexact comparison, and the thought lasted for a moment, just long enough to make this blog post. Now I have to get back to editing her manuscript, because when I am done with hers I also have a son who will graduate with an MS in Math next month, and his manuscript is next. His thesis is on optimizing an energy model of the electricity distribution grid for Humboldt County, California, which he blogs about here.