Re[2]: Vester's Certification

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      And I believe the best vehicle is genuine professional certification --
      the same type of vehicle that protects the public by making it impossible
      for a self-taught surgeon or trial lawyer to get a toe-hold if they can't
      prove to their peers that they know what they are doing.

Just so you realize the full extent of what's being proposed here. He's just
suggested that both Clarence Darrow and Abraham Lincoln weren't fit to practice
law. Both were self-taught and neither took a bar exam. (I may have to retreat
on Darrow, my copy of "Darrow for the Defense" is at home and I'm operating from
memory on it.) Now, we can hypothesize whether they *would* have passed if they
took one, but we'll never know.

Certification only proves you can pass a test. It doesn't *prove* you have any
ability other than that. If certification *really* demonstrated ability, then we
wouldn't have nearly so many "professional malpractice" lawsuits.

In addition, in the case of the medical profession, it's caused an entire
profession to focus on artificially produced pills and ignore some quite
effective natural remedies (yes, some natural "remedies" are snake oil, but not
as many as the AMA would have you believe). But enough, that's a topic for
another list.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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