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Subject:Re: Degree or Not Degree? From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- AXIONET -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 23 Jul 1997 10:39:17 -0400
Somebody who sits on the fence usually gets mud
from both sides, but I can't help thinking that
this debate is ridiculous.
Hasn't it occurred to anyone that a degree program
may be right for some people, but not all? Or that
a degree may be right for someone at one time, but
not another? In other words, that the issue is so
tied to context that discussing it is pointless?
When I was still trying to be an academic, I learned
a lot from doing my Master's degree. Much of what I
learned I might have eventually picked up anyway, but
taking the degree focused my energy and gave me a bit
of external discipline.Most importantly, it gave me
time to learn what I needed to know. And, because I
was also working as a teaching assistant, it gave me
some on-the-job training. For that time in my life, it
was exactly what I needed.
A few years ago, when I was facing the existential crisis
that eventually lead to me becoming a tech-writer (see
where Sartre and Camus can lead you?), I briefly considered
doing a doctorate. In the end, I decided not to, because
it didn't seem to have much point. I was already teaching
at a university and publishing regularly in my field, so
I didn't see how a doctorate would help me. So, I changed directions.
In both cases, I don't think that I was that different from anyone else.
I've seen people with doctorates who lacked any real grasp of their
subjects. I've also seen people with no post-secondary education who are
among the most intelligent people I've stumbled across.
The only sensible conclusion, it seems to me, is that there is neither
definitive value nor absolute futility in a degree. Taking a degree is
an opportunity, and, unless you know what use a person made of that
opportunity, the degree itaelf means nothing either way.
That said, I do dislike the way some employers consider degrees as proof
of ability. That's laziness, or perhaps looking for easy answers to the
problems of how to hire.
But my dislike is just as strong for those who automatically dismiss
degrees as elitist or as useless. That's reverse snobbery at best, and
anti-intellectualism at worst - and anti-intellectualism strikes me as a
strange attitude in a profession that seems intellectual by definition.
--
Bruce Byfield (bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com)
Technical Writer / Job Bank Team, STC Canada West Coast Chapter
h: (604) 421-7189
"And you won't see me surrender,
You won't hear me confess,
Cuz you left me with nothing,
But I've worked from less."
--Ani DiFranco
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