Credentials
by ChrisMarch 23rd, 2005 10:05 am
I’ve never felt apologetic or defensive about not having a degree, but it sure does seem to bother other people. How many times have I heard: “You don’t have a degree? But you’re so articulate and intelligent!”
To which I always reply, “Interesting assumption. Has it really been your experience that every college graduate you know is both articulate and intelligent?”
When it comes to political news, we’ve sanctified the wonk stuff and labeled good old common sense the province of wingnuts and morons. No wonder so many people don’t bother to interpret the news - we’ve already explained to them why they can’t.
This really hits home for me in a number of ways. Unlike Susan I did graduate college but I never did graduate from High School. Actually, I never made it past the eighth grade and even that was a struggle though not, I hope, because I’m unusually slow. Credentials are important to some, most especially employers, because it’s an easy and accepted way to judge a person without really knowing the first thing about them. In my own case, I don’t get too many questions anymore, for the simple reason that once you have a bachelor’s degree most people don’t concern themselves with things like how well you did in high school. Naturally, being a fairly self conscious person, my typical concern is that my lack of formal education will be evident to those I’m speaking to. That’s never actually happened (I hope) but the concern always lingers in the back of my head and can, from time to time, present self imposed barriers, even here on my own blog, with regards to what I’m comfortable discussing. Self deprecation aside, I wonder how many Interesting and insightful and inspiring voices we are not hearing because of the importance placed on formal education and even social status. Quite a number I would imagine and our political discourse is poorer for it.
Susan discusses the dearth of working class voices far more coherently than I ever could, so go read the whole thing.
