During this last weekend, I had the fortunate experience of being flown to Seattle Washington to interview for a prestigious internship this upcoming summer. Huge amounts of communication, and the resources and time of many company employees were dedicated to evaluating if I constituted a good investment for my prospective employers. In the down time on my trip, and since then, I have put some thought into how employers decide who to hire. It dawned on me that such decisions have been around for all of written history and in many civilizations that couldn't even write.
Take for example, the Scythian people. They were a people known for their great artwork, and impressive horsemanship. Somewhere in their culture, there must have been a means to decide if a young lad would make a good artisan. Who would break the newest wild colt? Where should a king turn to commission his new crown? Since their society did not have a written language, a resume or letter of recommendation were definitely impossible. The skill of an artisan or tradesman must have been conveyed orally to those with demand for their goods. If there were several qualified candidates, there may have been a test or competition to ascertain the best, but again it must, by necessity, have been a test of action due to the lack of written knowledge.
Jumping forward in time, and westward in location, we come across many civilizations that did know how to read and write. Yes, most of the people still were illiterate, but those folks probably behaved much like the Scythians when trying to prove their skill levels. I will focus only on the educated elite who did know, and use, written communication. Such knowledge allowed for the creation of curricula that could be repeated. With standardized teachings, whether holy or secular in nature, comes certification. There were many called Sophics, Platonics, Clergy, and many other prestigious titles throughout history. Each was considered an expert in their field only after a rigorous training.
A similar system exists today with University Graduation certification. A diploma certifies that its owner possesses skill and knowledge at a high enough level to be considered for most technical jobs. 'Considered' is the key word in the previous sentence. The common practice now is to interview candidates for specific positions, before offering jobs. Interviewers can put candidates through strenuous tests designed to assess the level of vocational folk knowledge the said candidate possesses. Often candidates will be compared with each other to decide which one will be better suited for a position. It seems that our culture has come full circle, or maybe has never completely left the behavior of the ancient Scythian race, regarding how we prove we know what we know.
Maybe someday we'll be so well connected with social networks, and standardized tests, that computer systems will be able to place workers in the best environment suited to their individual talents. Until that time, we will continue, as a global society, to base our vocational goals on attaining, and demonstrating mastery of, knowledge and skills.
This was a very creative idea for a blog post! One thing I found very interesting was your statement "The skill of an artisan or tradesman must have been conveyed orally to those with demand for their goods. If there were several qualified candidates, there may have been a test or competition to ascertain the best, but again it must, by necessity, have been a test of action due to the lack of written knowledge." This reminded me of how in 1401, at the birth of the Renaissance, the city of Florence held a competition between two artists to see who could create a better door panel for the Florence Baptistry. The winner of the competition then received the commission of doing another project on the baptistry that was on a much greater scale (and therefore greater paying). Years later, the two artists both entered a larger competition for designing a dome for the Florence Cathedral. This time, the loser of the baptistry competition won the dome competition and became even more famous than the artist that won the first competition. Their reputation had been spread orally, and it was this that had allowed them to participate in the competitions, which caused them to be talked about more, spreading their fame orally even more. So even when there is writing, this oral tradition still prevailed in many instances.
ReplyDeleteWhen do you find out if you get the Microsoft internship?
Our entire civilization pretty much is based on certifications. And, we've developed certain learning institutions (colleges, universities, community colleges, vocational training centers etc) that determine one's level of certification. It's an intriguing thought to consider what the next knowledge institution (the digital age) will bring as far as certification methods.
ReplyDeleteWhat digital certification methods do you think are in the near future? I think Universities still have the most legitimate certifications. However, even in Universities prestige varies based on ones level: ie associate, bachelors, masters, PhD. . . More opportunities typically open up with increased education.
ReplyDeleteTo Jared: Sorry, can't talk about the internship stuff online, I'll fill you in during next class. Nice comment though
ReplyDeleteAlex and Brenda: I've given some thought to where certification is going, and mentioned it briefly in my post, when I mentioned standardized tests. Let me go into a bit more detail on what I meant. Suppose we assume that most vocations require a certain set of skills for potential hires. It is true that they will be given most of those skills if they attend a decent university, and graduate with the right major, but they will also be required to take classes that don't relate at all to the job. Now, running with this idea, we could create a set of tests, one for each known skill, and post them online. If you want to show that you're qualified for a job, you simply have to pass the tests that they require, with the score that they demand, and then you go into the pool of potential hires. From there it would be easy to match up employers and potential employees.
The problem with this system is that businesses would then be given the final say over what are minimum educational requirements. If company "X" decides to hire people without requiring a writing test, fewer people will find it necessary to learn how to write. This is a big problem, because businesses will be driven by profit, not the educational wellbeing of their employees. Therefore, I think that Universities will stick around, and probably still be the ultimate certifiers, but you might see a drop-off in college attendance, if people realize they can get technical jobs without a degree.
Yeah, its amazing how much writing influences everything! A diploma, simply a piece of paper with your name and degree, determines your status in society, what jobs you get, etc, etc. For all its worth, you could totally forge it and pretend, kind of like the movie, Catch Me if You Can.
ReplyDelete(Sorry, I started writing this comment hours ago, before everyone commented on it), so my comment seems a little out of context, oops!
ReplyDeleteWas I really just censored too?
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous, post your comment again, and I will too!
ReplyDeleteI would like to apply this idea to the grading of this class. Professor Burton and Peterson are trying to grade us on our "self-directed" learning. I see a problem with that. To me, it is faulty logic, and every one in the class I have talked to agrees. Who has the right to GRADE self-directed learning? No one. It is something you cannot grade.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to attempt to grade self-directed learning is ONLY if the person grading knows each one of their students personally; knows their strengths, knows their weaknesses, and knows their learning curve(s) for subject being graded.
In our college setting, it is not expected for professors to know all of this. And THIS is why we have syllabi and rubrics. These written grading systems help students to have a (more) fair playing field, because they know what is expected of them per assignment, how things are going to be graded, AND how to identify SPECIFIC things to improve on for future assignments.
Unfortunately, that is why this class has reached a stagnant plateau. We are feeling less motivated and less excited about this class, because we are working hard, trying our best to have "self-directed learning," but for reasons we know not, our A-efforts are graded as B's and C's. We get few tips to improve, and we feel like we are doing them. In fact, we are trying to do more than that--we try to talk to our instructors after class, but they brush us off; we try to email them, but EVERY SINGLE email remains ignored. How are we supposed to improve when we do not know WHAT we are doing wrong?
Why am I spending 6 hours for every blog post, just to see that my ideas were was graded at a C level? Perhaps I struggle with these subjects, and for me, my work in this class is some of the best work I have ever produced! But compared to someone else, to whom this type of thing comes easy, my work is criticized--even when this other person might be doing their worst work ever. Again, who has the right to grade my self-directed learning?
For this very reason, I am SO grateful for teachers who use the power of the written medium, so that their students can succeed in this competitive standardized educated world we live in.
Sorry if this is harsh, but compared to how harshly we are being graded on our efforts--it is not harsh enough.
Why does this person keep deleting this post? Please explain.
ReplyDeleteComment reposted ;) Let's see how long it stays up. . . Perhaps we could actually get a conversation going before they all "disappear. . ."
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