Fuck your degree- Article

[Reptorian]

Made by the man who getting himself a degree.

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Author- The analyst of the realgoesright wordpress
Source- http://realgoesright.wordpress.com/2011 ... ur-degree/

Having one of these does not make you better than someone who doesn't have one.

Seriously.

I don’t care about your degree. I don’t care where you went to school. I don’t care you graduated at the top of your class.

Your degree, in most cases, is not a measure of your intelligence.

It is simply a piece of paper that says you were able to meet a standard at the university of your choice, and suggests you paid a good amount of money (in most cases) to have the opportunity to do so.

Be proud of your degree. After all, (in some cases) there was a considerable amount work, growth, and effort used to ensure your graduation.

But I take particular issue to the absurd amount of importance given to said graduates. As if this qualifies a person’s intelligence, or said person should be lent more credence SOLELY because of their degree.

I am 3rd year law student who will be graduating with a degree this time next summer.

For whatever reason, this garners me special treatment by people and I cannot for the life of me understand why. I want to be a lawyer, in order for me to do so, a certain type of degree is necessary. So in effect, I am only following a path to get to a “final” destination.

I understand a great deal of this “degree worship” partially has to do with appearances. Getting a degree is the “right” thing to do and many people believe you have to have some modicum of intelligence to even get into college in the first place.

But we know this isn’t true.

And what kills me is the difference in how people treat you once they find out you’re “educated.”

As a 6 foot 2 black man with dreadlocks that stretch past my chest, I don’t think I have to relay to you the difference in treatment I receive when people don’t know I’m pursuing a doctoral degree, and how they treat me after they find out.

The extreme change in attitude is slightly disconcerting.

To prohibit this, unless explicitly asked, I don’t even tell people I’m in school, just to see how the conversation goes.

People think going to law school is what makes me smart.

I find myself constantly persuading said folk, law school has no bearing on my overall intelligence. I’ll refrain from discussing exactly what intelligence means, since it is essentially a psychological term that has no crystallized definition and can’t actually be proven.

My intelligence (and I suspect it works this way for others), is something which has been nurtured by an overall love and thirst for knowledge. I have every reason to believe I’d have been just as smart whether I was a law student or a plumber.

Of all the things I’ve just written, perhaps the most egregious example of what truly bothers me about some degree holders is this overwhelming sense of entitlement and superiority.

I’m not suggesting this speaks to the general population of degree holders, but there is a certain section of them who believe to them the world is owed and sacrifices are not to be made. The overall laziness because they believe a degree they’ve acquired merits them some sort of acclaim, is…well, ridiculous.

The superiority aspect I somewhat alluded to when I was discussing how people treat me before they find out I’m on my educational grind, bothers me the most. I’ve heard/seen some ridiculous shit with regard to “degree-less” people.

I remember once I was walking along campus and I stopped to have a conversation with one of the janitors. I have a strange affinity for respecting people who do jobs which are considered “low class,” if only because I know how much their work would be missed if they DIDN’T do their job.

In any event, once the conversation was completed one of my colleagues brought the conversation to my attention. They asked why I would speak to the janitor; I stated the janitor was actually a decent person who always had kind words.

Their response?

“I mean, I just don’t get why you’d associate yourself with them. He’s a janitor; he probably didn’t even finish high school which is how he got stuck with that shitty ass job in the first place.”

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If this is you, let this blog serve as a reminder that I’m not sure who you pull this with but should you ever bump into me just know…

I don’t give a fuck about your degree.

Peace.

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My comments: That man is full of win.