Terry, Colin: Credentialing

     As the sociological and economic times change, the existing rules and regulations must also change. This is not only in relation to the judicial laws, but includes every area of society. Since the beginnings of civilization education has taken hold of people leading to a central belief that the longer or more advanced the education, the smarter or more intelligent a person must be. Recently, upon analysis of the current undergraduate education, people have begun to discover that education is not where it needs to be. Many people are now questioning the value of their degree, but are these questioning thoughts grounds for an education revolution?

     Being a current college student this is an issue that is very close to home. While reading this article, many thoughts rushed through my head. If I am spending my family's money and sitting numerous hours in class a week, my degree should definitely be worth something in the long run. The authors bring up a good point when they say that revolutionizing the current education beliefs and methods would take a drastic attempt from the current students. The students, ultimately, control what happens in the education system. Without students, what system is there? I believe the problem lies within the close-mindedness of the corporate world (A.K.A. the ones controlling who they employ and from what college they come from.) If these employers would attempt to define their potential job candidates in ways unrelated to the type and school of their degrees, I believe that would make a drastic turn for the better.

     The authors also make another great point when they bring up that the process to devaluing credentialism must begin at the higher job positions. If this process starts with the newly graduated getting a first time job, it would be pointless. As these "newbies" try to progress in their careers, none would be able to fulfill the standards required of the current higher end positions.

     The phrase money is the root of all evil pertains to this whole credentials and degree situation. The amount of money made from students giving an arm and a leg to pay for undergraduate and graduate school is almost indescribable. I agree that everyone should be properly trained for his or her job, but that comes more from hands-on learning.

     Overall, this ongoing war as to whether or not the credentials should be lessened relates immensely to college students everywhere. If employers look less into a person having an Ivy League degree and more into the overall experience and success of the person, positions will be filled with individuals more suited for the job. Sure, a person with an Ivy League degree is obviously smart, but is not necessarily a person better suited for any position.

Romo, Ricardo: Credentialing

            The article “Death by Degrees” has given me a different perspective towards the new generation that wants to earn a higher education and differentiate themselves from the rest of the competition.

               What would happen to me if I didn’t graduate or attend graduate school? It's a simple question that has frozen my thoughts on how to react.  The article stated “As bachelor’s degrees become democratized, the master’s degree becomes more mandatory for advancement,” which is a given fact about how society’s youth is under pressure to go further than an undergraduate education. My opportunities would dramatically diminish in the future if I quit college or decide not to move onto graduate school, and I know that my future would be working in a dysfunctional company that would not last in this recessive economy.            

               The fact that our society is cracking down on youth’s higher education by going to college has interfered with my parent’s opinion towards college. The article emphasized “as the credentials comparison seeps down the academic ladder, universities jack up fees which would cause parents to pay whatever for an excellent test score on the entry exams." This single sentence frightens my parents's thoughts of me not accomplishing my goal of graduating college. Surely they're proud of me for graduating high school and I don’t believe they would want me to quit school and begin working, but I am so determined to finish college that it has impacted them to believe that I would keep going to school with or without their consent.

                If I do decide to quit college and take an alternative look at life without credentials I would most likely become an innovator. In the article I noticed a sentence that noted that those near the bottom of education will be fleeced while those near top will be getting a leg up. I don’t believe the editors took into account the successful billionaires without a bachelor’s degree such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. If they were successful without a degree I believe that I'll be able to do so as well, even though our society gives the innovators a miniscule opportunity to become an instant success. If I choose to be an innovator it would be caused by the fact that I dropped out of college.

               Sincerely, "Death by Degrees" is one of many articles that have attacked our political perspective towards our youth's future work force.

Osborne, Ashley: Credentialing

There was once a time when education was a rare and highly valued attainment. Over the years, as more people sought out knowledge, it became easier for people to realize their dream and obtain a degree. “Dignity must be drained from the credential,” or else degrees will inflate and the more people that have them, the less they will be worth. This means that we have to stop overrating the importance of credentials.  More emphasis needs to be put on the work that doesn’t require a degree, such as manual labor. Yes, garbage collectors are paid less than lawyers, but are essential to keeping our society running. If everyone wants a degree, then there will be less stability in society.

“The accreditation arms race will become more fearsome,” meaning increased competition for higher paying, better jobs. It will become about who has the most education, that piece of paper signifying their qualifications. There will be more people out of work, because they can’t get a job with their hard earned, expensive degree. Of course, there will be plenty of lower level jobs open, but I bet that someone who just spent 4 years of their life trying to get somewhere in life won’t want to resort to a job that only requires on-the-job training.

“Yesterday’s medals will become tomorrow’s baubles,” restates how things that were so precious and rare a few years ago, are only going to be commonplace in the future. A bachelor’s degree in teaching won’t matter if everyone has a master’s degree. The former becomes irrelevant and people are forced into gaining higher credentials if they ever want to amount to anything.

“Quadrupling the supply of gold stickers is one way to devalue the credential; getting rid of the sticker system altogether is another,” because when everyone has credentials it is the same as no one having any. Inflation of credentials is obviously a problem that we need to face. But if we get rid of credentials altogether, how will we know who is qualified for a job and who isn’t? The answer is not dismissing the credentials, but emphasizing the importance of jobs that don’t require degrees, and taking off much of the pressure of getting a college education. I’m not saying that following one’s dreams of becoming a doctor or a lawyer is bad, but there are less prestigious jobs that are equally important to society.

Lillard, Kelsey: Credentialing

                  "Death By Degrees" is an article that breaks down America's credentialing system and shows the reader where it's hurting more than helping our country. It's true, without a degree you won't get far in our society. But what if the value of the degree was taken away?  What would happen?

                  As the article states "Over the centuries, as China’s scholar–bureaucrats grew more powerful, their metrics of assessment became increasingly intricate. Those who passed were stratified into nine grades, and each grade was further divided into two degrees" (2nd paragraph). This division helped to form a diverse workforce, much like my college experience today, a degree will allow me to move up the ladder to a bigger and better job. This may not mean I'm that much more educated, "Our elaborate, expensive system of higher education is first and foremost a system of stratification, and only secondly — and very dimly — a system for imparting knowledge."  Exam performance corresponded exactly to salary even in 605 CE. It seems as if the credentialing system is a dangerous one to play with, if you discourage society with failure for long enough, someone might just rebel (Hong Xiuquan). 

                  This article also points out the crippling debt that college students must face to become credentialed. "Although America’s college graduates are already late on paying nearly $300 billion in loans, they don’t have the option of walking away from these debts," so even if post-graduation plans fall through, students must still come up with the money. Luckily, I chose a college that would not leave me in a financial hole, but I may not be as employable as someone with a degree from an Ivy League school, with the credentialing system it seems one must pick the lesser of two evils. 

                  If I were to not graduate from college, I would probably not be able to pursue the career I wish. I would be able to find work, but it wouldn't be my dream job, and it probably would be hard to make ends meet. I do believe I am being forced to become credentialed if I want to live a comfortable life. An alternative to credentialing could be something like the article said, if all high school valedictorians refused to go to college this would cause an uproar and things would change. A new system would have to be formed, but perhaps it could be less broad of a system. I think it would be better for people to learn extensive knowledge in the field they wished to pursue over getting so much surface level knowledge of everything.       

Kennedy, Krystin: Credentialing

            Education has become a nearly universal requirement in today’s world in order to make a decent income. However, certain levels of education have become almost too easily achievable to the extent that too many people have a certain degree without enough jobs for them to fill. History shows a similar situation in the story of the Taiping Rebellion.

            Over the years, the bachelor’s degree has become democratized- too easy to receive. This makes the master’s degree almost mandatory for a well-paying job, because so many people have bachelor’s degrees that employees holding the few jobs available have the ability to pick higher-educated applicants over less qualified ones. Our system of education has become less a system of imparting knowledge and more a system of promoting stratification because how the original universities of the Western World viewed education. Their chief mission was not to produce learning but graduates instead, teaching always being subordinate to the process of certification. Artisans made apprenticeships last long in order to keep their numbers small and their services high in cost. For those looking for a job income and social position were required through affiliation with a cartel. People who wanted the jobs had to pay before they made any money and many could not afford the process.

            That old system is much the same as with student loans in America. In the U.S., student debt is now over one trillion dollars today because of the amount of money required to receive a decent education in order to get a decent job with a decent salary. Even then, many adults cannot crawl out from under the over-bearing weight of their student debt. For instance, if a student must pay $20,000 a year for tuition and takes it all out in student loans that makes a total of $80,000 over a four-year time span, and that is just for their bachelor’s degrees. To receive their master’s degree, which many must possess in today’s world for a high-end job, students will probably need approximately four more years of education at a more expensive institution. That leaves the student with about $200,000 in student loans to pay off, while starting a job search.

            Overall, the system of education has turned into a system of stratification not one that imparts knowledge, leading many far into debt. If this doesn’t change many will be left out of jobs and possibly houses and food as a consequence.

Jett, Rachel: Credentialing

            Job security wise, America is being controlled by an oligarchy; one percent of the population is forcing the rest to become highly educated. That one percent contains the college graduates with the highest honors, the ones that earn the terminal degrees. The number of people becoming educated is higher than ever before in the United States. Sooner or later, high school graduates are going to be forced to obtain a master’s degree, or maybe even a doctorate to secure their careers. Is this fair? The degree(s) one has now has a great effect on one’s job security in America. Is this a good thing? 

            College is expensive. And if college is vital in order to survive, students must come up with the money to pay for it. Parents are then forced to pay for costly ACT and SAT tutors to aid their children in securing scholarships. If financial aid fails, students are forced to turn to student loans, which turn into long-term student debt. Just think: one can’t just stop at a bachelor’s degree anymore. Students have to earn a second or third degree to survive, adding to their debt and guaranteeing that they will be unable to pay it off before they die. 

            So what should we do? Should we convince students to ignore college altogether? Yes, that might lower the bachelor’s degree prices by a good amount, but that would leave the college un-bound high school graduates with associate’s degrees or less, which tend not to lead to well-paying jobs; or worse yet, leading to terrible, annoying, time consuming, minimum wage jobs. This also wouldn’t alter the one percent oligarchy immediately. If anything, it would make it worse. It just might lower the one percent to a terrifyingly low decimal rather than raising the percentage. 

            Maybe there isn’t really a good answer. As a college student who received tons of federal aid and was already planning on earning a master’s degree, I can’t say that the system is all that terrible yet. It’s not as bad as China’s Confucian system where only 0.16 percent made the required terminal degree. Perhaps when the system does become that bad it will be the least of America’s worries. We’ll have an even higher national debt, no social security, no job security, and much else to stress about.

Ibinola, Daniel: Credentialing

   

                  The unending battle between bureaucracy and meritocracy is still on today. This battle has not only moved into the political sector it has also eaten deep into the educational system. It has gotten to a point in society where an individual must have a college degree in order to make a substantially high income. Other ways this battle has affected the educational sector include the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the steady decline in morals and credibility.

                  College is beneficial in providing better career options, monetary benefits, standard of living, better social networking, and insurance against unemployment. But these benefits have been narrowing among the children of the rich and the upper-middle-class. Their grades may not meet the requirements of the top class schools of their choice but they are still likely to be admitted. For people who are further down the income ladder it is more difficult for them to be admitted into these so called prestigious schools, resulting in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

                  Being credentialed should not interfere with credibility. Merit should be the foundation of every society. If the admission of students is not based on merit and jobs opportunities are only given to “elites” who graduated from prestigious schools such as Harvard and Yale, there is no way to avoid corruption. No matter how prosperous a society seems when there is corruption it is a weak or failing one.

                  Like every student, I conform to the idea that I must be credentialed because of the societal state I find myself in today. The article Death by degrees noted that “no administration has embodied credentialism as thoroughly as the current one. Of Obama’s twenty-five cabinet appointments, twenty-two had a degree from Ivy League University, MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago, Oxford, or Cambridge. Which leads us assume that public policy is so complicated that you need a stack of degrees to figure it out.” Nevertheless, in the absence of a college degree, I will definitely go into sprinting. I am a very good athlete and have the ability to learn any new sport there is. When I am no longer athletic because of age, I will consider coaching. That will be my insurance from being credentialed.