The Degree Seeking Process in Higher Education

"In the State of Florida, Should Four Benchmark Certificates Equal A Full-Fledged Degree?" by v. johns

I would like to revisit a previous post by enhancing and reposting recommendations I have made that I believe would improve the degree-seeking process in higher education. They are as follows:

First and foremost…

(1) GORDON-RULE-CORE CERTIFICATE: This stage of degree  development would consist of 30 hours of Gordon Rule classes, general electives, academic development classes and a “built-in” opportunity for those who are behind to catch up with remedial or “college prep” classes.

(2) LIBERAL-ARTS-CORE CERTIFICATE: This stage of degree development would consist of 30 hours of general electives, career exploration, preparatory electives for future major(s), and an opportunity to apply for a traditional A.A. transfer degree upon completion.

(3) MAJOR-CORE CERTIFICATE: This stage of degree development would consist of 30 hours of any core classes pertaining to one’s chosen major. (Double majors would acquire two major core certificates.)

(4) PRE-GRADUATE CERTIFICATE: This stage of degree development would consist of upper division classes needed to complete a degree, as well as any professional development classes, seminars, capstone classes and internships. The actual degree, as always, would need to be applied for, evaluated and either mailed, picked up by the student or presented to them upon graduation. (Double majors would acquire two pre-graduate certificates.)

Additionally…

(5) POST-GRADUATE CERTIFICATE: These certificates already exist in a number of interesting fields of study. Some, however, are reserved not for people who want to start anew, but for those who are already working in their chosen field of endeavor.

(6) TECHNICAL CERTIFICATE: These certificates already exist in a number of interesting fields of study. They range from web design, to nursing, to firefighting, to systems administration, to real estate, and vary in scope from entry-level employment certification to continuing education for those already working in their filed of choice.

Lastly…

(7) NON-ACADEMIC GENERAL-EDUCATION CERTIFICATE: This type of certificate does not exist and would serve as a way for those who simply love to learn (say… via art classes at the Armory in West Palm, or history classes at FAU’s Lifelong Learning Society in Jupiter, or Beginning Photoshop classes through Palm Beach State College’s Center for Corporate and Continuing Education in Lake Worth - or any other non-credit study) to showcase their desire to learn, on paper. This certificate would be useful to those with no formal education or those with gaps in their education, should they find themselves having to 1. change jobs, 2. re-enter the workforce, 3. would like to distinguish themselves in some way to move up in their company, without having to reinvent the wheel, or 4. as credit for those who are attending college late in life.  

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Since my original post on this matter, I have heard several analysts on two cable news channels (MSNBC, CNN) refer to “vocational training” or “career training” either as a way to beat the bad economy we have now or as a way to return America to the competitiveness it has clearly lost. A full-fledged degree, while useful, fails to account for the constant change in one’s industry or career that a certificate can immediately address and change course on. Furthermore, many colleges appear to be ill-equipped to process students who have no clue as to what to do with their lives.  

I believe that my recommendations would address several fundamental issues at hand: The first being, my last sentence in the paragraph above. The Gordon-Rule and Liberal-Arts phases of “degree development” would allow for significant exploratory learning and evaluation for students unsure of their futures. Don’t think this is a big problem? Consider Florida’s problems with graduating students “on time.” Whatever THAT means. Other than typical personal problems, what do you think this is attributed to? Career counseling needs to be mandatory, not optional.

Second, I believe better pricing models can be achieved, somehow, with those advancing further and further in their pre-graduate studies acquiring breaks in tuition and fees (excluding graduate-level study for now). Higher education’s exorbitant price tag (personal, financial or otherwise) essentially underlines how it has become more of a sellable product or commodity than an entitlement that all Americans owe themselves and their country. While academic talent and skill should be thoroughly rewarded, in a country of 300 million and counting, “survival of the fittest” (i.e., the richest and, sorry, the whitest), and any other free-market nonsense, has no business polluting education’s collaborative nature with its value-destroying venom.  

Third, I believe that knowledge-based study (academic) and hands-on study (vocational) should interact and intersect, equally, with the advantage of a four-year degree being its foundation in humanities-based knowledge, found in the Gordon-rule and Liberal-Arts phases of degree development, which prepares students for roles in management and other decision-making roles, should they choose to tread further in their careers. In the real world we often find those who are educated vocationally having to “go back to school” to acquire softer liberal arts people skills to advance in their industries’ management structures. Conversely, we also find people who have achieved significant academic success having to “go back to school” (at vocational level) to change careers for manual jobs in more stable or promising industries that can’t easily be off-shored. The upcoming green sector, for example. Thus, though these two approaches often intersect dynamically in the real world, higher education seems to be either unequipped or unwilling to cross these paths into one more meaningful, flexible, interchangeable infrastructure that reflects how our society actually works.  

I’ve come to thoroughly resent the “white collar vs. blue collar” nonsense that, even now, on some level or another, permeates our national character. Part of the reason it exist is the way these two skill sets are valued. People exceedingly good with their minds are damn-near kidnapped and invited to develop their minds at our nation’s alleged “finest institutions,” while those better with their hands are either left to fend for themselves or attempt to play sports, but luckily, most are savvy enough to further their knowledge in severely overlooked and highly-stigmatized vocational training schools. In the meantime, while many four-year college students end up in my domain, the “Great Grey-Collar Corridor” of thankless services jobs where accepting low pay is essential to surviving, many vocational students, with their more locally-focused, immediately in demand, hard to out-source skill sets, manage to land themselves jobs that put them light years ahead of their knowledge-based peers financially, even if only in the short term.

The essential idea of anything labeling itself  “an education” should be to enhance knowledge and skills of all kinds (report-writing, welding, accounting, etc.), not to pit one industry or skill set type against another in a sickening game of mental intelligence versus manual intelligence.  Really, the only thing separating a four-year college degree from a two-year vocational degree should be the emphasis on humanities-based management skills in a four-year degree (found in the Gordon Rule and Liberal Arts phases of development) vs. the more immediately marketable express skill-set development of a vocational degree. Furthermore, not only should those in four-year programs be encouraged to view their choice as a “deluxe vocational option” (training) with more emphasis on “industry skills,” those pursuing a “strictly vocational option” should be encouraged to further and enhance their specialized manual knowledge with the humanities and “liberal arts skills” that will enable them to lead in their industries, should they desire or be called upon to do so…

Before I conclude my remarks… a warning to educators, employers and parents… It’s no longer enough for parents, and other agents of counsel, to tell their children to “get an education” as we are so freely and un-thoughtfully told when we are young. Parents, these days, should be encouraging their children to acquire and develop highly-specialized knowledge and skills (via hobbies and extra-curricular activities, etc.) with the ultimate idea that an education will allow them to take their talents further with the development additional sets of skills (academic), learned in school.

When I am asked why I continue to seemingly waste time taking community college classes with no apparent end in sight, I often tell people that I am merely “renting space” to maintain and develop the few talents and skills I have (design, visual composition). My own personal academic failures have more to do with my past stubbornness in getting help with various emotional distractions and cognition problems than with education’s current state of abomination. I believe that had I realized early on that it’s about “skills” and not about “knowledge” and “the knowledge based economy” and other mindless nonsense we are told to encourage us to feed the corporate-consumer complex, I believe that my potential financial success would have been achieved by now. Why? Because, academic or manual, knowledge is a function of skill. It takes information and skill to create knowledge. This blog  exemplifies that point on a minuscule level. Still, there are others that the education system, here in our state and throughout our nation, have clearly let down with its weak infrastructure and almost meaningless imprint in our lives.

Once the jobs come back, if ever, the need for a stronger educational-industrial framework TO BACK THEM UP should be a no-brainer. Without education, and all its various forms, THERE IS NO AMERICA. And with education front and center in the current international competitiveness discussion, one would think that the state of Florida would try to further its growing “bellwether” status by showing the rest of the nation and the world how an education should be developed… Once this state decides to stop demonizing its own army of instructors, perhaps we can finally begin moving in that direction…

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Thank you for reading The Lost Paradise Journal of Florida. To view my recommendations in their original context, please click here.