David Dauerty wrote:

> I have spent way more time, effort and money at greater personal sacrifice to learn what I know than the average
> degree-toting "professional."  I know this all sounds like the bitter ranting of a disillusioned expatriate, but I feel well
> justified in my strong view.

You are not alone. An education with passion leads to enlightenment, without passion it leads to waste. The fact that career
decisions are made that go outside the box should not be an automatic sign of stupidity, or label anyone as expatriates either.

> It is unspeakably arrogant to assume that any of us have any substantially new ideas.  Those who think they do would be well
> advised to talk to those of us who learn from the combined experience of all who came before us.

Oh, man, so well put! Please keep unlurking.

It amazes me that graduate degree programs in preservation would push for a thesis to cover something "new" when what we are
about at the building is re-envisioning something that is old. If more energy were spent trying to figure out what was already
done, and why, which is why I think a lot of us have gone into preservation to begin with, we would probably not have this
nagging sense that the field is rapidly abstracting itself. The graduate programs should take some time to re-think the basic
framework they are using to point student preservationists out into the world. Providing them with a humble attitude toward a
50,000 year record would be a start. Though I fear that as long as we have very expensive space station projects and dream that
we can get away from ourselves and the planet, leaving our mess behind, there is little hope that any realization will come to
bear on our need to understand the last 50,000 years.
--
][<en Follett
SOS Gab & Eti -- http://www.geocities.com/~orgrease
Bullamanka-Pinheads website
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A0=bullamanka-pinheads