Baby "Masters"

Two weekends ago was graduation...all over the country. I was so excited for everyone who finished high school, college, and graduate school. The feelings of renewal and freedom were contagious!

However, I was surprised by the number of people who were younger than me (or even my age) and graduated with Master's degrees. These people have been in school almost their entire lives and now they have advanced degrees? With most of their experience embedded in the world of theory, what knowledge do they have of how the world actually works? They have all this knowledge in their field, but I'm willing to bet they have little concept of how to implement it.

My belief is that implementation requires knowledge of people and how to communicate with them. Being in the working world teaches you that you can't just perform tasks - you have to navigate through systems and negotiate with people to get something done. A teacher can't simply "teach" a student how to read and a chemical researcher can't just "perform experiments." What if someone doesn't want to learn or the head of your lab won't buy the equipment you need? You have to understand the point of view of the people you're working with and know how to align it with yours. School teaches you to perform a task and rewards you for getting done. It doesn't teach you the steps in the middle that happen in the real world.

This is where I have a problem with people getting advanced degrees before they've worked and it's why these "baby masters," as I call them, appear so ill-equipped in my mind. It makes sense to me to go to college, work, and then get a graduate degree. You come in with an understanding of the practical work and can therefore ask questions and learn how the knowledge you're receiving applies. I happened to be looking at some schools, in fact, and saw that their programs require students to have a few years of working experience before they can apply. Many business schools are like this, but I think it should be required for others as well.

I will grant that in some situations, you need to keep going to school in order to get into the practical experience. Medicine and information studies are two examples. Engineering and architecture are also fields where this may apply, but I've noticed that these programs incorporate co-op experiences (work-study) into the degrees...which is fantastic.

So on one hand, I'm excited for everyone graduating and dispersing their knowledge and energy into the world. On the other hand, it only reminds me how much improvement our education system needs.