Re: anti-education is nonsense
Hi Dana,

I'm glad to know that you are quite confident in your beliefs and opinions.  I, on the other hand, am not so confident with my own.  That's why I have tried to ask exploratory or probing questions, rather than issue dogmatic pronouncements.  For me, the jury is still out...but I value the process of critically investigating these questions with peers.  I value the question and certainly won't leave in a huff because I don't get the answer that I want.  Isn't that one of the skills that we expect should come from a good undergraduate education?

I think some of what you wrote may have been directed toward another writer, so I will only comment on what I can infer as being written to me.

You write:

 Don't presume that Richard Cox is alone in his opinions- he is certainly not, or these programs and the many devoted educators attached to them would not exist.

I reply:

Rest assured that I for one do not presume anything of the kind! It's obviously an area of many differing opinions...i believe that diversity of views should be tolerated and allowed to be expressed!  Nowhere is this truer than in academia, where I and Richard Cox currently reside.

You write:

As to why formal education is a waste, you provide poor examples and flawed reasoning.

I reply:

I never asserted that formal education is a waste.  My MLIS will be my third university degree.  What I have been getting at is that there many be other avenues for gaining professional education that are of equal merit to a post-graduate degree program.  What I have specifically said is the following:

I wonder, how did archivists and librarians ever got along before requiring advanced degrees and/or certifications?  Are the respective fields better for it?  I have talked to so many librarians who have told me that their experience in library school was virtually worthless.  Many have told me that the first job offered the best training.

In a follow-up email, I then went on to ask the following:

Must that education and training come in the form of advanced degrees at expensive universities, or could it come from the within the work environment, study on one's own, and at conferences?

In a third email, I restated my question this way:

what I am questioning is the logic and efficacy behind those minimum requirements, as demonstrated by the successful completion of a certification program.  I think there are other (maybe even better?) avenues for demonstrating competency.

Formal education in an accredited (and expensive) university may not be as crucial as some would have us think.  It isn't clear (to me, at any rate) that formal education helps one do his or her job any better than someone who is self-trained and studied in an apprenticeship type of environment.  Apparently, the California State Bar agrees.

You write:

Please do me the favor of finding out exactly how many people would like to be represented by an attorney who did not attend law school- or how many non-traditional lawyers are out there practicing today.

I reply:

You originally stated that one cannot become an attorney without going to law school and obtaining a JD. I demonstrated that people can and do just that.  If you want to modify your argument, that's fine...but at least accept that your example was clearly in error.

You write:

...I don't see much logic to your protestations, and I don't see know of any one of the decriers publishing or advocating for the profession.  Those who continue to deny the value of formal education to this profession will most likely be left behind in the dust.  I think my library school peers and I will be happy to take up where you left off.           
 
I reply:

Huh?  If you don't see much logic in my protestations, then why do you reply so emotionally to it?  I questioned the need for formal university education as being the sole way to become qualified for many jobs in the field.  I offered the possibility of becoming certified in a manner similar to the bar exam.  Your response seems highly bizarre and puzzling.

I hope you can get some perspective on this.

Good luck,
John

--
John Erdmann
Graduate Student
Library & Information Science
Email:  [log in to unmask]
Phone:  206-685-5240
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