Re[4]: Certification & improvement (longish)

Subject: Re[4]: Certification & improvement (longish)
From: "Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 08:47:00 -0600

Grant wrote:

Karen-- you yourself provide an example of how "certification"
would improve the field...by giving people a focus and a *minimum*
set of standards for competency.

But it's the definition of the word "minimum" that's the problem here.
Define it low enough, and certification is valueless. When the bar is
raised, it prevents people from entering the profession. Perhaps I'm just
too cold-hearted, but I think people who hire low-quality producers deserve
to fail, "let them do it and decrease the surplus population" to use a quote
appropriate to the season. ;{>}

A large number of us who would
(presumably) be grandfathered in would not be able to pass the
test(s), were we required to take it/them. There will be slackers,
ne'er-do-wells, and incompetents in our ranks, just as there are in
all professions and trades.

I guess then I don't see the point of adding the extra burden of
certification. If certification will truly not serve to improve the
profession, why bother with it?

I don't believe that it will reduce the number of practitioners, for
there is no way to fully close the door (or ring of fire <g>), and
insist that documentation can only be produced by accredited writers
(or editors, or illustrators), as there is no way to sanction those
who choose not to use our services. Certification must
(for the most part) become an assurance of value added;
those who do not wish the assurance of that value, that warrantee,
will hire elsewhere.

Make up your mind, Grant. Either certification is minimal, as your first
statement implied, or it's an assurance of extra value, as you seem to be
saying here. It cannot be both.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.


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