Main Entry: 1 pro·fes·sion·al
Pronunciation: pr&-'fesh-n&l, -'fe-sh&-n&l
Function: adjective
1 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a profession b : engaged in one of the learned professions c (1) : characterized by or conforming to the technical or ethical standards of a profession (2) : exhibiting a courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike manner in the workplace
2 a : participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer> b : having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier> c : engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>
3 : following a line of conduct as though it were a profession <a professional patriot>
- pro·fes·sion·al·ly adverb
Being "a professional" is considered a very good thing. Even if you never looked up the exact meaning of the word, you know that a professional is someone special. The word profession has a number of meanings. One specific meaning is: a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.
It's not explicitly stated in the dictionary, but there is a connotation that a professional is someone who has mastered a field of knowledge and has developed the judgment that allows him to reliably use that knowledge in important situations. Doctors and lawyers were among the original professionals.
In the human status game, everyone would like to be considered "professional". It sounds better, it pays better and it gets more respect.
Not everyone has the talent to be a professional. It's not really something that can be taught. You can teach someone the central body of knowlege of a profession, just as you can teach almost anyone to play a song on the piano. What can't be taught is that essential quality that marks the difference between an artist and someone who is just banging on the keys.
So little by little we changed the rules. Rather than being a person with knowlege and judgment, too many of today's professionals are simply people who know how to follow the rules and fill out the forms.
There's nothing wrong with following the rules. But in many occupations, an excessive focus on rules does not improve performance and seems to lead to mediocracy. The original professional evaluated the rules. Sometime he improved them and sometimes he deliberately decided to break them. That's where the knowledge and judgment came in.
If you want to turn a job into a profession, you have to have a body of knowledge. That's not too hard because every job has to have some knowledge. But to make it "professional" you have to formalize that knowledge, make it more complex and set up some hurdles that keep just anyone from walking in the door.
There aren't that many jobs that by their nature require "professional" skills. Most of them involve some kind of danger - loss of life, or the gain or loss of a lot of money. A Doctor is a professional because he makes decisions that determine whether his patients live or die.
For many people, professional status just meant that you did not come home with grease under your fingernails. This was considered a good thing, even though a journeyman plumber might earn twice the money. You got to wear a white shirt and you were treated with more respect.
Wherever you went, your white collar told the world that nothing in your job required you to get your hands dirty.
And after a few years, you might advance to middle-management. Then you might make as much money as that union plumber and you still did not have grease under your fingernails.
The union movement came to an end when Corporate America convinced the majority of people that wearing a white shirt had more status than working for a living.
The truth is that status is a con game - unless the money comes with it. If you are not getting the corn, you are not the big chicken.
So how is professional status like a trap?
Over the years, we have developed a lot of pseudo-professions. Some of them are built around educational credentials and others involve some kind of testing and certification. More and more, the educational credentials are required before you can even take the test for certification. The reason for that is that certification tests do not exclude enough people. And if you come up with a really tough certification test, many of the current members of the "profession" would not be able to pass it.
In a lot of pseudo "professions", a weekend crash course would give you all of the information needed to do the job. Requiring a bachelors degree before you can take the test keeps out the riff-raff.
Most of the pretend professions do require mastering a body of knowledge, and they also require paying for the education and certification that gets you inside the door. Once you are safely inside the walls, these credentials reduce competition and provide higher status and higher pay.
If too many people get into the profession, the next step is to require an advanced degree to get into a managerial position.
Your education used to be an investment in future security. Educators, especially in the trade school areas, tend to include a lot of information that is not really necessary for the job.
The more stuff they can cram into the course, the more work they generate for their own profession; and they create the illusion that the course is very valuable. Who's going to argue with them? When you start the program, you usually don't know enough to object.
It takes a lot of training to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). I discussed the training with a young single mother who was taking the course. She badly needed the job and when we talked, she was slogging through the twelve hour block of instruction on nutrition.
What flashed through my mind at the time was the thought of her commenting on the nutritional value of a hospital meal to the head nurse or the Director of food services. I wondered what the consequences would be if she were caught advising one of "her" patients about proper nutrition.
At that time, LPNs were the workhorses of the health industry. They moved patients from bed to gurney, emptied bedpans, and did all of the scut-work that was beneath the dignity of the Registered Nurses and Doctors.
Like a lot of the almost-professions, a lot of the training was a con. There's not a lot of value in giving a person knowledge and training that they will not be allowed to use.
Once you've made your investment in future security you are stuck with your choice. If you decide that you wish to switch to a new area you will often find yourself outside the walls, looking up at the ramparts and the pots full of boiling oil.
So what's the point?
Little by little, we did it to ourselves. It seems to be part of human nature.
In fourteenth century Japan, a farm kid could pick up a couple of swords from a battlefield, stick them in his belt and declare that he was a Samurai. If he didn't get killed right away, he might actually become one. He was still unwashed and illiterate, but it was a kind of upward mobility.
Two hundred or so years later, the Japanese had organized most "professions" into Dan rankings. You could not be a flower arranger until you had apprenticed for twenty or so years and finally inherited the rank of Fifth Dan.
By that time, the Samurai class had enobled themselves and those who were not born of Samurai parents need not apply. In the process the Samurai had become literate. They were expected to be masters of both pen and sword. Those who were still illiterate learned to cover it up and make appropriate comments when someone else read their latest poem.
If someone can build a wall around himself and his rice bowl, he will do so. And most others will not object because they are too busy building their own walls.
So far, in the United States, we do not have licensed interior decorators - not that I know of.
Today, a lot of people are being evicted from the Castle. You get to stay here and your job goes overseas. If you are lucky, you are allowed to stay on long enough to train your replacement. When that happens, it's not a good time to be investing money that you do not have to buy your way into a new "profession".
If we build a new economy, some of the old rules have got to go. They worked for everyone's benefit for a long time. Now it's time to tear down the walls.
If a person has the skills to do a job, whether he learned them at a school or from a weekend at the public library, he should not be excluded from applying for that job. The knowledge and skills required for any kind of certification should be spelled out in advance - in writing.
If you pass the test, you should get the certificate. If you have the certificate, you should get a shot at the job.