[NLA] Volunteers and credentials

[Kelly Bruce]

Andres,

Although I recognize the tongue-in-cheek nature of your most recent post, I 
have a couple of questions for you.  First, you wrote: "I don't have a 
single official entitlement that credentials me to administer or teach at 
an adult education program or the K-12 system."  Your terms confuse me.  In 
the context of this thread, what is an "official entitlement?"  Do you mean 
a college degree?  Do you mean a certification?  (They are, of course, 
different things.)

Second, why disparage the Ph.D?-and, by extension, any formally-obtained 
degree, though I am inferring this last part, and you can certainly correct 
me if it is only the doctorate that is the target of your ire.  Diploma 
mills have been around since, I assume, the first person paid tuition. 
Tomorrow, I can pay $99.95 and receive in the mail next week a piece of 
paper saying I have earned a B.A., M.A., and doctorate from the University 
of Southern Utopia.  That's nothing new, though much more expensive than 
your penny.

I love irreverence and gentle mockery, and if that alone was your point, 
fine; I shall lighten up.  At the same time, and in the context of this 
discussion thread, if your larger point was that we ought not to require 
any of our ABE teachers to have degrees because that just means that they 
have been indoctrinated instead of having learned anything, well, then 
that's an argument that we can all take up.  If you do feel this way about 
formal education credentials, what in the world do you do when a learner 
tells you he or she dreams of earning a college degree?

Cheers,
Kelly


Kelly Bruce
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
Harvard University Graduate School of Education
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