Being Degreed, Licensed, Certificated as Validation of Competence is a Can of Codswallop
Posted: Tuesday, December 06, 2011
by Jeff Brown
Inner Projection
In my job, I’m always hearing about being degreed, certificated, licensed to do this and that, that you can’t do the job or do it well without some group’s arbitrary validation of your skill-set. Poppycock! I’ll elucidate for you in the here and now. No need to ponder to any great length or research for hours on end, you’ve got the experience to satisfy immediate understanding in hand. Ready?
You know, the guy who just dropped off a friend and is attempting to go in the opposing direction while two lanes of cars next to him wait for the light to turn, and he uses his truck as a wedging force--moving slowly forward, rocking the steering wheel back ‘n forth until the cars back up or get some of his paint grinded into their cars' paint. Yes, this happened to my wife and me. I remember hours later still shaking my head in disbelief at what I had seen. Marvelous.
So do you need a driver’s license to not just drive but drive well? Fiddel-faddel!
But it gets worse. You do have to study a little bit to get a driver’s license. But to-have-and-to-hold someone in sickness and health, and to have offspring and bring them up responsibly, consistently in a family environment only requires $80 and an ID. Then Boom! You’re in. Welcome to instant parenthood.
Taradiddle!
Hell, it takes more work to get a fishing or hunting license. Hell, to get a handgun license I fired five times in total to qualify. In total! There I was, nineteen-years-old with a gun on third shift as Officer Brown protecting Colts Firearms in West Hartford Connecticut. As I did my rounds, just for fun I took the gun down to the testing range and shot it into the gauging tunnel. Woooooooo! Whoooooooo! Aren’t you glad I had that license? Another time at the Hartford building, I took a few shots at some stray rats. The rule for handling guns? Never take the gun out of your holster unless you are prepared to shoot someone center mass. Yeah, like the middle of someone’s body or nothing. But I qualified and had a license. As someone who may just catch a stray bullet if someone like me happens to one day act irresponsibly, aren’t you glad for licensing?
Horsefeathers!
How about that high school diploma? Mean much? You know why you’re dumber than a fifth grader? Because you learned that stuff, if you learned it at all, about nine-hundred years ago. Do you know that empirical data has proven to a great degree of accuracy that if a student simply studies to get a grade the knowledge is soon forgotten? And that you only remember knowledge gained for lengthy periods of time (here we’re only talking 3-6 months, tops) if you are intrinsically motivated? Meaning you have a passion for that stuff you were learning. Honestly, did any of us really have a passion for English, science, and math? Honestly?
Do you think it’s any different for the majority of students who go off to college just because . . . well, because everyone else is doing it? Do you?
Tommyrot!
I worked many a summer as a laborer putting up walls, laying down floor, constructing awnings over gas pumps and time and again ran into the most incompetent ‘licensed’ individuals you’d ever meet. One summer after my boss had gone through four or five layout carpenters (those guys who are supposed to be so good they can lay out the architect’s measurements to the ‘t’), he turned to me and said, “Jeff, you’re a better layout man than half these idiots.”
Indubitably!
My grandmother talked like she had three PhDs, but had never gone to college. A good friend of mine married a woman with a master’s degree, and briefly after meeting her before knowing this I said to myself, “Well, maybe she’ll get her GED someday.” One of my most successful friends with a business, bi-coastal homes, and eighty employees never even went to high school. He dropped out in eight grade. Talk to him and see if you can tell whether or not he has a high school degree or any degree, for that matter. I've tried that on several occasions wondering if I could tell someone has a degree or not. Often I am wrong. What exactly is a college degree supposed to look or sound like anyway?
Fiddlesticks!
Ben Franklin never went to college. Leonard Da Vinci never went to college. Abraham Lincoln never went to college. And those who never went or dropped out: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Ty Warner (Ty Inc. Beanie Babies), Tony Robbins, David Geffen, David Murdock, Ted Turner, Ralph Lauren, John D. Rockefeller, Howard Hughes, Steve Jobs, Mary Kay Ash, Halle Berry, Henry Ford, Andrew Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Les Wexner, on and on the list goes.
Now some will say, these are the exceptions, but did you ever think that the exception could be the rule? Why not? I personally know dozens of people in the computer- and business field who never went to college. Some say that’s where you learn, but more than ever before one must learn to be self-taught, for with the creative destruction of capitalism a given—job creation and job loss—and the increased economic turbulence (read Allen Greenspan’s Age of Turbulence), you will be having three to five careers, never mind the number of jobs had within those careers. Today, more than ever before, one must learn to be self-taught, self-motivated, and self-governed. For what are you going to do? Stop learning after sixteen years? That’s a LOT of downtime.
Blatherskite!
Another important point to consider is that after you receive your driver's license, marriage license, high school diploma, college degree, teaching credential, most any certificate, degree, or license, there is little done to validate it or update it. I bet most who obtain one of the above can't even explain what it is that they are supposed to be able to do now that they have that little certifying piece of paper.
So what's the point? In most cases, the point is that people just want to make money off you. Case in point. To qualify for my masters, I had to take the GRE after I was accepted to the program. According to the 'rules,' I could have taken it before working on my classes or if I obtained a 3.5 for the first 12 credits I still had to take the test, but the results didn’t matter. Meaning, that I could take the test, get a zero and that was OK. Meaning, what they really wanted was my money.
So where does that leave us?
Today is a day ‘n age like no other, full of great opportunity, challenge, and variety. Yet that requires a LOT of work, accountability, and responsibility. For if today you are lazy and simply rely on licensing, certification, and being degreed, you could very well end up like my good friend the third-grade teacher.
He had finished his degree and gained his credential, just needed some class time before he was able to step in and teach. Since the credentialed, full-time teacher was not there, he needed me, someone with an emergency credential to be there with him in the classroom. I was helping a third-grade student with her subtraction. I was showing her how to check her work: add the two bottom numbers, get the top one. You need never to be wrong with subtraction, I told her, as long as you’re willing to do the work. As I said this, the soon-to-be teacher overheard me and said, “Oh, I’ll have to remember that.” I thought he was referring to my little statement of do the work, never be wrong. But no, for he said, “Add the bottom two, get the top. Huh?”
Nerts!
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Fantastic and right on! Great article.Hey, Mrs. Popsickle. I just asked to be your friend earlier today on Facebook. Thanks for reading. Peace!I am rarely on facebook as most will tell you. BUT, I will go on just to add you. Thanks Jeff.I am rarely here, but mostly on Facebook, and I thank you. ;o)
Codswallo? Is that a typo or how you use it? Here (in Aus), we say coswallop. :)Yes, just didn't get that little pinkie (Scottish or would you prefer the American 'pinky'?) down on the 'p' key. Tee hee. Yes, some were British or slang or . . . well, just weird. I just went with the synonyms that stuck my fancy, fancy, if you fancy. By Nancy . . . .err Hannah. ;o)
My Dear Colleague, I was searching for a way to comment, but how can one comment on "sound common sense" logic. However, my lady friend said, "then pass it on, that is a comment."
I passed it on, I love it.Thank you Dr. Rucker. Your comments are always appreciated. God bless.
Hi Jeff.
You don't even need $80 and an ID to become a parent!
I had a passion for science, but not the rest. I do still remember much of what I learned in that area, but sadly not the chemistry ... found very little application for it in my daily life. :) Have a degree in biology, but it's what I've learned working all sorts of different jobs that has made my life better. Never worked a day in the field for which I have my degree.
I'm a self-taught jeweler. I know a lot of people who go to school to learn those skills. And so, yeah maybe they do things the prescribed way and I may not, but I get the same result. So what's the big deal. I've found what works for me.
People working as licensed (yes I wrote licensed) dispensing opticians in Arizona are required to complete a certain number of hours of continuing education each year. I don't remember how many, but at least there is that. Also, the doctor my husband works for has people come in to keep them up to date on new lens materials, treatments and the like. But he learned all of what he knows on the job, from making lenses to fitting frames to faces and what's the best material for a particular prescription.
Yes, you are right, people put way to much emphasis on that little piece of paper.
Hugs,
DianneHi Dianne,
I'm sure there's some merit to all those little pieces of paper, but they are over emphasized to a great degree (ha! I said 'degree' ;o) As I do more research in my field--education, career, life--it is becoming more and more evident that those little pieces of paper mean so much less than what the individual does on his / her own. As professors, every semester we are required to fulfill a 'flex obligation,' or continual updating of skills. If we don't, the district or university takes money from our pay checks at the end of the year. Does it work? Well, I just briefly stood in for an instructor who had minor surgery. I asked the students what they were doing, and they told me, "Not much." "We're about five weeks behind on the syllabus." "He just makes things up as he goes." This is someone with advanced degrees who keeps up with his semesterly flex obligations. After standing in for three classes, one student said to me, "I've learned more with you in one day than with our professor in three months." As you state, it really comes down to experience. Hell, some with a degree are complete incompetents while those with no degree are doing amazing things. I say proof's in the pudding. :o) Peace!
Speaking of codswallop, this article! Hard to take this carnival hawker seriously, but is good for a few laughs. Not a real accredited professor, though he passes himself off as one. Danger! Danger! Opinions expressed in this article should not be construed as fact!Hi "Jill Happenstance."
At Wryte Stuff, we generally like to critique the work rather than the person. It's easy to talk badly of someone and a bit more difficult to do a good critique of what they have written. Also, it is fairly pointless to write badly about someone, as you do not really know that person ... usually. True, you can get a feel for what the author is like by reading EVERYTHING they have written, but still there is a lot left unsaid.
I'm writing as an author who has been personally attacked a number of times and can therefore personally report on how pointless it is.
DianneThanks Gregory. LOL :O) Peace!
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