Education, education, education!

The heading is, of course, the famous (or should that be infamous?!) mantra of Tony B Liar when he first became Prime Minister of the UK.  However, in the intervening years, education in the country has, in my opinion, become more and more of a joke.

I'm not even referring to the alleged "dumbing-down" of examination papers in both secondary and tertiary education.  Nor am I referring to the news, this past week, that there were a number of "unanswerable" questions in certain examination papers produced by some English Examination Board(s).  [By the way, if you want to find out about a TRULY unanswerable question, go to my audio blog, and take the time to listen to the message under that title!].  I'm not even referring to the apparent inability of even those who would claim to be highly educated to produce correct spelling and grammar in either their written, or spoken, communications!

So why have I come to the personal conclusion to which I have referred?  Some time ago, a photograph was published in a local newspaper.  It was of a Graduating Class, resplendent in gowns and, if my memory serves me well, mortar boards, and each one holding his/her 'parchment'.  Every face was glowing with pride at the achievement that was being celebrated.  One thing alone spoiled the situation.  This was a class of very small children who were "graduating" from their Nursery School!

Now, I am all for celebrating any stage in the journey of life, and it could certainly be argued that these children had achieved something after their year of pre-schooling.  But to call it a Graduation, and dress them up as if they had just successfully completed a 3-5 year course at University ...???  As far as I was, and am, concerned it simply devalued the real thing.

This week, I also learned that the University of Dundee - Dundee being the home of publishers D.C.Thomson & Co, responsible for the childhood (and later!) favourites such as the Beano and Dandy comics, with their plethora of fascinating characters - has launched a degree programme in Comic Books!

I know a number of ministers who have been awarded an honorary D.D. (Doctorate in Divinity); but I think that I might try to go one better and work for the degree of D.D.D. (Doctorate in Desperate Dan), which might even permit me, as part of my research, to scoff the occasional 'cow pie'!   Instead of a D.S.L. (Doctorate in Sacred Law). I could maybe try for a D.L.S. (Doctorate in Lord Snooty).  Unlike some G.Ps. who are entitled to write M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) after their names, perhaps I could aspire to the qualification of D.D.M. (Doctor of Dennis the Menace)!

I do have a fair number of academic qualifications to my name, and have graduated with full degrees from three different Universities.  To gain my qualifications - which also cover a variety of academic disciplines - I have spent years in either full- or part-time study; spent countless hours researching my subjects; and produced well over a million words.  I am no natural genius, and every Certificate, Diploma, and Parchment has been the result of hard work and dogged determination.

Perhaps I am just an intellectual snob!  However, it was others who coined the expression "Mickey Mouse degrees" for those which were/are awarded for what are, in fact, vocational subjects.  I suspect that the University of Dundee has taken that concept to its ultimate height!

P.P. (post-publication!)   I've just noticed that the new degree programme (which will actually offer the degrees of M.Litt., and Ph.D.) is to be led by Dr Chris Murray.  It's a pity that Chic, of that ilk, is no longer available.  Now those would have been lectures worth attending!!!