In my senior year, our class suggested gag gifts for our professors.
For the department head, we considered a polished plaque with 40 or
so individual mirror tiles labelled with names. The joke was that
whenever this professor looked longingly at this "photographic" class
list, he would read Jo Yoshida or Joe N. Jineer with his own likeness
reflected in every single pane regardless of the name underneath it.

This department head and I butted heads. His evangelistic,
professional approach to the field ran counter to mine which was to
simply graduate to snag that secure job so I could buy more bass
guitars and the occasional ounce bag. And he sensed this soft
attitude I carried. His reaction, I surmise, was to discourage
miscreants like me, to keep the engineering field pure with
short-haired, dedicated professionals, not with pot smoking musicians
who preferred using HP calculators (and later on, Macintosh
computers, LOL ).

I never adopted his personal agenda, graduated anyway, and here I am
17 years later focused on adventure travel, writing and photography.
Go figure.

But flying across the Pacific to Japan and other countries in East
Asia, we do find that, yes, knowing a person's alma mater does indeed
guarantee that an individual is more suitable for company A or B,
though certainly not company X, Y or Z. That is, if I'm a Tokyo
University (Todai) or Kyoto University (Kyodai) law grad, I can work
for Sony or Toshiba or one of the vaunted departments of bureaucracy;
and if I graduate from a regional college in Miyagi Prefecture, I can
expect job offers only from mid-level companies or subcontractors to
firms like Sony and Toshiba. I can't recall written policies but
human resource departments of top tier Japanese firms generally
specify recruiting only graduates from universities A, B, C, and, if
they're desperate, well, maybe D, but definitely no one of Korean
ancestry (an unofficial registry is circulated to firms during the
spring hiring season). Obviously these Japanese firms feel that
particular university affiliation and ethnic purity guarantee the
best employees.

I feel that titles and degrees do not guarantee anything. From my
five years "teaching" at a university / college level, I'd only
assume that Japanese graduates have become adept at writing
state-sanctioned entrance examinations. Nothing more.

In East Asia, "educational" institutions, from kindergarten (imagine
entrance exams for 4-year olds!) to graduate schools, function as
social filters. There is much training. Stratification. Learning, if
any, is essentially a secondary priority left to the individual.

I reckon N. America carries this aspect as well, though to a far
lesser degree (you can actually flunk out of university). Still, I
prefer to approach an individual on a person by person basis, and a
degree would be just one of many aspects of his or her life for me to
consider.

So I cannot with conviction assume that those with religious titles,
or doctoral degrees in religion, are any more "spiritual" than pot
smoking musicians. :D

If I sound anti-institutional, I have to say that I do have degreed
friends with titles who are talented people in their respective
fields and enjoy their careers to boot. But I'd also have to point
out that these same people don't make a big fuss about promoting
designations that follow their names.

Is it any wonder, then, that I smile whenever I read "world's
foremost authority" prefacing ad copy on books about raw food
nutrition or strength-training? ;)

To my neighbors south of the border, please enjoy yer Fourth of
Joolai celebrations. I'll be attending a Galen Rowell photo
presentation here in Calgary!