Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hiding My Light

It happened again today. Someone made some crack about “and don’t let them know what your IQ is.”

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HAVING TO HIDE MY IQ AND MY EDUCATION AS IF I BOUGHT THEM ON THE BLACK MARKET!

I am sick and tired of hearing that you can’t discriminate against the handicapped, but it’s okay to discriminate against me, because I’m smart. I have to eat, too.

What is all this? Part of the “dumbing down” I keep hearing about? Why isn’t there some sort of law saying that you will hire the most talented and the most qualified, especially in schools and colleges?

Dumbing Down Example 1: Years ago I was hoping to get a job in the local school district as a school librarian. I had gotten a Master’s in Library Science. I had the Professional Teacher Education credits on my undergraduate degree. I had the state certification. I had two years teaching experience and three years library experience. I did some substituting while I looked for work. One day I substituted for a high school librarian. Someone in the school told me he’d been put into the position the previous year. He had the minimum qualifications for the position: an undergraduate teaching degree and 9 hours of library/ed media coursework. I had about 75 hours of coursework in library/ed media (a master’s and an undergraduate minor). When the librarian had retired the administration said to him,”You’ve taken some classes, are you interested?” He had to take one class that summer, and he was in, because the teacher’s union made the schools take minimally qualified teachers who were already on the payroll over better qualified people who weren’t. I went to work in private industry in another city. So much for schools advertising they hire the “best qualified” people. And a generation later they wonder why so many students have to take remedial classes in college.

Dumbing Down Example 2: When I finished my Master’s, you wouldn’t be considered for a professional position in a college or university library unless you had a second Master’s (the “subject master’s”) or a doctorate. Now I’m looking for work again, and I see college and university jobs advertised that don’t even mention a second advanced degree. What happened? Have colleges and universities reduced their standards, right when there are more people than ever obtaining advanced degrees? Was this done to accommodate the Ward Churchills of academia?

Dumbing Down Example 3: One of our City Council members works as a recruiter at a local college. Yet this person’s bio on the City’s web site says nothing about education at all. This person keeps talking about the importance of education for young people, yet doesn’t talk about his own at all. Has it gotten so bad that someone who works for a college won’t mention his education out of fear of … what? “Acting white?” Not being a “common” man?

Dumbing Down Example 4: A young friend with a master’s degree has mentioned, on more than one occasion, the difficulty he and his wife are having finding “like minded” individuals in this City to be friends with. He means young couples in their late twenties/early thirties with good educations, smarts, and a willingness to do something socially besides discuss what happened on this week’s “American Idol.”

Has there been some cultural paradigm shift, that we outsource professional work to foreign countries, and import professionals from them to do work that has to be done here (doctors, for example) because we simply don’t value education and brains the way we used to?

Or did I fall down the wrong rabbit hole?