Think about a principle or concept that is important to you in your pursuit of obtaining your degree...Design and create a bumper sticker...I'm not sure the principle is supposed to be a "big idea" that drives my teaching philosophy, or rather a more personal point of view on what motivates my participation in an MEd program, but torn between mercenary self-interest ("need the degree to advance the career") and academic abstraction ("the merits of lifelong learning"), I've arrived at a statement that I feel can work for either:
Talent opens most doors, but degrees open a few critical ones.My experience in the commercial art world taught me that the portfolio is king, and solid work and a clean reputation open more doors than degrees alone. I share this with students interested in freelance careers, and this is a reality that they, happily, come back to tell me again and again still holds. This is also confirmed in conversations with freelancers and other educators. I suppose this merit/talent-based worldview also resonates with the thoroughly Western sense of rugged individualism acquired reading Ayn Rand novels as a teenager, too.
While school is not sufficient, or even necessary in some cases (thanks for reiterating this in front of my students, Allan Chochinov of Core 77), I also know, after spending much time in Higher Ed, that the path to administrative promotion is paved with advanced degrees. It seems that accreditation requirements drive a lot of this, but that makes it no less real nor necessary.
I still believe that talent trumps degrees (if you have to have one or the other), but degrees are the right key to open some doors. As a teacher, I aim to help students develop and use either/both tools. As a student, man, I'm not crazy about 15 more months of homework.
~mrc
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