Learning vs Certification

 The idea of certification never loomed very large in my consciousness when I was younger. The situation today seems to be quite different: Thanks to coronavirus and Zoom, we’re looking at the end stages of college as a commodity.

To a large extent, students have become customers. And professors should acknowledge their own role in getting us to that point, because the commodification of higher education is a direct byproduct of the transformation of college into the entrance examination for America’s middle class, something the professoriate has cheered on.

Sure, students are buying a complex bundle that’s rarely described as a “product.” But if you doubt colleges are selling, you need look only at the glossy marketing campaigns. And if you think they’re mostly selling learning, consider this thought experiment from economist Bryan Caplan: If you had to choose, would you rather have four years of Princeton University classes but no diploma, or the diploma, but no classes?

I have the answer to that: all of the highest levels of education that I received were diploma-free. These include ten months of intensive private instruction with José Tomás in Alicante, Spain, possibly the finest teacher anywhere in the world at that time. One month of master classes also with Tomás at the Instituto "Oscar Espla" in Alicante. Two one-month master classes in The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta with Oscar Ghiglia, another great teacher whose full time job was at the Conservatory in Basle, Switzerland. One month master class with Pepe Romero at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg, Austria, probably the most respected music school in the world. The last one at least offered a diploma, but I never bothered going by the office to pick it up. And to the best of my knowledge, the others didn't even offer any kind of certification. You learned stuff, that was your one and only reward.

Another side effect of the coronavirus is that all that has been swept away, temporarily at least. Will it all come back? Perhaps. But the bigger question is, are the credentials offered by universities and colleges still worth the ever-increasing cost? The "customers" seem to be questioning that. Perhaps next they might question the actual value of what they are being offered other than the credential: by that I mean the actual content of what they are learning. I spent eight years in university classes, but that is certainly not where I learned to play guitar. That was about equal parts learned from private lessons and master classes and for the other half, my practice studio.

Perhaps history and economics are different. But how much history and economics are college students actually learning? As opposed to blinkered ideology, that is.

Let's have a little music. This is my recording of Las Abejas (The Bees) by Barrios: