Found on the "other" site.

Bruce, I agree. It's not a positive discussion, and I don't see that anything constructive can come out of it. I just felt a need to post my $0.02 in reaction to what I felt was an outrageous and undeserved personal attack. Sorry to have appeared to be fanning the flames - that was not the intent, and I hope the discussion takes a different course.

That said, the education system in this country does leave a lot to be desired (Quinn's Canadian-ness being irrelevant, so please...!). And lately, even attending Harvard does not seem to guarantee a person has met any particular standards in recieving certain levels of recognition.

It's not just the quality of education that suffers, but also access to it (and to certain institutions) and the results of it that are at issue. These things are complicated and won't be solved here, but the perception that someone somehow has a different level of expertise or qualification, despite the level of the degree awarded based on which school a degree was issued from, is one that should be addressed. An MBA has different meaning (and value) depending on whether it was issued from Harvard or Columbia, Backwater Community College, or a program such as Regent's, but it does not necessarily mean that the holder of an MBA from one school is any more or less qualified or capable than one from another. Yet in many cases, the name of the issuing institution does have a major impact on how the person is perceived, what kinds of jobs (and in which companies) a person will have access to and be considered for, and so on. It has little to do with a person's actual capabilities, rather it reflects more the social and economic background of the person and/or his family. While this is not true ALL of the time, is IS true MOST of the time and for me, it defeats the purpose of higher education in many ways, most importantly in limiting access of people to positions of responsibility in major corporations or politics to those who've been admitted to "The Club", whether by birth or by being able to afford the membership card.

I guess this is a pretty cynical view and maybe tomorrow I'll be in a different mood and would have put it a different way. It's also partly reflective of the "sour grapes" feeling I have with regards to my own situation - I'm sure my BS from the University of the State of New York has had more than a little to do with my not getting a shot at positions I KNOW I've got the skills, experience, and knowledge to do as well as (or usually better), than candidates who were fortunate enough to have attended more well-known colleges and universities.

One solution might be to create a registry or database of some sort that would enable employers to check on the level of a person's education, confirming he has earned whatever degree in whatever subjects or profession, perhaps his gpa as well, without associating the degree with the school, and to forbid employers from asking for the school attended during the screening process. Of course, this has other problems as well, ranging from insuring that ALL schools (and their graduates) meet certain consistent standards, all the way up to fighting the institutions at the top of the academic food chain which sell "prestige" as a large part of their $40,000+ tuition fees, and other issues in between. This latter issue was perhaps somewhat justified in the past as many of them DID in fact seem to provide a better education, but as the range in tuitions increases from top to bottom and as the difference in the quality of graduates from various schools seems to be narrowing, something needs to be done. Educational discrimination is something that's becoming more and more an issue, and while I for one think we WAY over-do it as a society in issues regarding various forms of discrimination, education discrimination is one way that can be used to discriminate in other ways, as sort of a "mask".

Does anyone else see things in a similar manner? Has anyone else got similar experiences, or have any of you found it to be (amazingly!) the other way around? Am I once again making a mountain out of a molehill, or perhaps just tilting at degree mills (Ivy-walled ones included)?

Well, anyway - this is what you get on a slow Saturday morning (it was morning when I turned this machine on, anyway!), when I've not yet had enough coffee to jumpstart the brain, after over-revving it the day before with too much...

...have a good one!


PS: Yes, I sometimes think that the widespread addiction to and consumption of coffee is actually a secret conspiracy, designed to keep the masses' brains muddled - but that's another topic for another day in another forum...

 

quality of ideas

When we post, does the length of ones's dissertation matter?
When we post, does the number of graduate college credits one has completed matter?
When we post, do the qualifications of people we have studied under matter?
If all these things matter, than the quality of the posts would differ, in noticable ways from one poster to another.
In fact the quality of posts do differ.
some posts are very logical, refer to mutually identifiable facts, show a strong base of knowledge.
Other posts are emotional shoot from the hip kind of things.
Clearly backgrounds come through in even a simple post on a trivial subject.
All the best!

 

name schools

Hey if I had spent $40 k a yr to get a degree from someplace like Yale or Stanford you bet I would flaunt it

 

There's a little "prayer" that I really adore.

Lord, grant me the courage to improve those things that I can. The patience to accept those things that I can't and the wisdom to tell the difference.

 

Calif convention

Any interst in having a DL convention in Calif?