[NLA] Volunteers and credentials

[AndresMuro@aol.com]

Hi Kelly: 

In the USA, to teach k-12 and in most ABE programs you need to possess 
teaching credentials. A teaching credential is a state certification from a 
teachers ed program. This would usually entitle people to teach. To be a 
principal of k-12 people need to get an k-12 administrator's certificate. I 
don't have any of this so technically, I would probably not be able to teach 
or administer a k-12 program with the current requirements, and if we create 
an ABE certificate, I would probably not be able to work in ABE. The irony is 
that I probably have more knowledge of education and ed admin. than two 
thirds of the ed professionals in this country with or w/o credentials. I am 
not being conceited, but I have spent an extraordinary amount of time money 
studying and doing applied work in education. Because I have done this on my 
own, I have not been tied to some program's requirements of what I need to 
learn to be an educator.

Regarding the disparaging of Ph.Ds, I can give you and easy example, that I 
have been using lately, since you are at Harvard. There is a saying in Latin 
that says: "lo que nature non da, salamanca non presta" (not sure if I 
spelled it correctly). This means: what nature does not give you, salamanca, 
(or harvard) won't loan you. going to the Harvard example we have the 
president of the most prestigious educational isntitution on earth. 
presumably, his title and education should have given him extensive knowledge 
and brilliant intellectual abilities. Now, I only have a master's degree at 
UTEP and do not carry the credential of "very smart" that a Ph.D., or an 
academic position at harvard would give me. However, w/o any muy "macho" 
credentials I "know" that cornel West is a brilliant mind and a significant 
academician, cultural researcher. I also know that there are a lot of other 
professors at Harvard that are way more mediocre than Cornel West.  
Essentially, I am arguing that a person can have Ph.D. and be the president 
of Harvard and still will not know or understand certain things that I would 
think should be known to people with that level of education. This is one of 
many examples that I can come up with. Problem is that Ph.Ds specialize 
people in one small area at the expense of other knowledge. so, in addition 
to people becoming invested in a paradigm,  people's minds get narrow not 
broad. The scientist that works in the lab does not take any responsibility 
for the bombs that are killing millions of people in afghanistan. The Ph.D. 
compartmentalizes people's minds so that they will not have to feel 
responsible for anything outside of his/her compartment.  

Andres


In a message dated 7/4/2002 12:43:14 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
bruceke at gse.harvard.edu writes: 
> 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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andresmuro at aol.com
Visit my art webpage at: http://www.geocities.com/andresmuro/artwork.html
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