Credentialism on the Left

Saw this photo posted on Facebook:

To my mind, evidence that the creeping cancer of credentialism has gone further on the left than on the right. Although, for the sake of balance, the creator might have noted that Bill O’Reilly has two Master’s degrees, one of them from Harvard.

Going to university is as much a class thing as an intelligence thing. The poor cannot afford to go, and the lower classes may see no value in going. That does not make them dumb. University also works best for the mediocrities. If the very dumb cannot hack it, the very bright will often be held back and frustrated by it.

Shakespeare had only a grammar school education. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were both college dropouts. Edison managed grade three. Einstein completed a teaching degree, but was an indifferent student. Henry Ford never went. Lincoln had no formal education. Washington had only grammar school. A generation or two ago, no journalists went to university, because it was considered irrelevant. And frankly, our newspapers and magazines were much better then.

But it is also a complete falsehood to suggest that education does not matter to the right. Remember, George H.W. Bush wanted to be remembered as “the education president,” and George W. Bush’s first major legislative accomplishment was “No Child Left Behind.” Milton Friedman argued that college education in the Humanities should be free. The modern right is extremely concerned with education, and this follows naturally from their concern for equality of opportunity.

What they are not concerned with is credentialism, which is to say, with honouring class distinctions.