Pogue, Joel: Credentialing

            As society progresses, many skeptics are being forced to pose this question—Is the credentialing of undergraduate programs nationally hurting or benefitting the country? Many believe that credentialing limits the amount of graduates who have the potential to fill certain sectors of society. Also, to have an education from an elite school, money is just as important as GPA and SATs. In addition to the financial system of admittance, it is blatantly obvious that, for most degrees, the educational system would benefit from hands on personal training rather than the political stratification system we call the degree.

            Those who wish to attend a prestigious or Ivy League school are at a huge disadvantage if not born into money. Considering the fact that, “Of Obama’s first thirty-five cabinet appointments, twenty-two had a degree from an Ivy League university” (The Editors). It is sufficient to say that a high-ranking government official or medical doctor was most likely born into money. It makes sense that the best schools will have a high tuition rate. However, there must be a different facet of admittance being that we are limiting these prestigious positions earned through such schools to the most qualified of the rich, and not the most qualified period. A change in process is long overdue when the leaders of our country and the healers of the sick our concerned.

            Although the idea that accreditation hurts our country is abstract in some ways, the certainty of some ways should be reason to bring about change in one of the most important classification in our society-the classification of education. Two things must take place in order to move this country forward in respect to educational accreditation. Firstly, “Dignity must be restored to labor, and power and ecumenicism to labor unions” in order to keep those defining education in check (The Editors). Secondly, “Dignity must be drained from the credential” so that the professional field determines the parameters of qualification rather than the board of universities (The Editors). If our country is to seek proper education in specified fields, then the workplace, which is in constant evolution, should define said educational parameters. The fact that an economically partial bureaucracy defines who has the credentials for a certain field of study, is hindering our country on a scale which beacons for change.